Call for nominations

Spatulatta is searching out restaurants around the country to be recommended as a “Spatulatta Kid Friendly Restaurants.” They will become part of the Spatulatta On-line Restaurant Guide and future regional Spatulatta travel guides.

We're looking for restaurants that not only are welcoming to children but also offer food that appeals to kids that is fresh, nutritious and not fat, sugar or salt laden.

How it works:

Kids, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins can nominate a restaurant for consideration. The nomination form consists of a quick set of multiple-choice questions on-line describing the atmosphere and the menu. In addition there is a place on the nomination form for a mini review so you can let us know why the restaurant is worthy of the title “Kid Friendly.”

When we get a nomination, we post the name of the restaurant in our upcoming restaurant guide on the Spatulatta website. We'll send an e-mail to your favorite restaurant to let them know they are in the running.

The restaurant now needs two more positive votes to achieve the recommendation. As these votes come in we'll post them on the Spatulatta Restaurant Guide page. We'll also send an e-mail to the restaurant letting them know that they are moving up the ranks!

When all three “thumbs” up have been achieved, we will send the restaurant a recommendation letter and a window decal that they can display right next to their Zagat's decal.

This is a work in progress, so as we receive your submissions we will be creating the Restaurant Guide online. When there is at least 12 restaurants we will then expand the website guide.

Questions & Answers:

Q: Who can submit a name for consideration?

Anyone can submit. Even restaurateurs can submit the name of their establishment for consideration. We actually encourage restaurateurs to take a look at their menus and staff and consider whether they are kid-friendly or not.

Q: Are any restaurants disqualified?

Please do not submit the names of fast food chains. Most of their kid food is loaded with calories, sugar and/or salt. A restaurant could be considered kid-friendly because they give out toys and have a play lot. But we're looking at service and food.

Part of what we're hoping to do with this campaign is to raise the level consciousness of food manufacturers and restaurateurs that “kid food” needs to be elevated to the next level.

Q: What if a restaurant gets a negative review?

We'll take that into consideration and send the comment along to the restaurant.

What we don't want to do is become a forum for nasty comments. If food is cold or the wait staff is rude, you need to take that up with management /at the time of the incident./ These are things that can be improved on and restaurateurs want to provide the best service and the best food.

We're trying to find restaurants that provide positive family experiences.