California restaurant encourages diners to leave cell phones at the door

Would you give up your cell phone for an hour or two in order to get a restaurant discount? A Los Angeles-based eatery is encouraging customers to check their cell phones at the door for a five percent discount off their dining bill.

"For us, it's really not about people disrupting other guests. Eva [restaurant] is home, and we want to create that environment of home, and we want people to connect again," Mark Gold, proprieter of California’s Eva restaurant told Southern California Public Radio on August 14. "It's about two people sitting together and just connecting, without the distraction of a phone, and we're trying to create an ambience where you come in and really enjoy the experience and the food and the company."

Gold said that less than half of the diners at his 40-seat restaurant have taken advantage of the discount, but he understands that parting with one’s cell phone just isn’t for everyone. Gold said that he has been guilty of texting or talking on his cell phone when out at other restaurants as well.

“When [my wife and I] go to dinner it seems like the cell phone is part of the table setting now,” he told SCPR. “Every table you look at, it's a wine glass, the silverware and the cell phone.”

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