‘Tweens at a nice restaurant is a good thing – Parents and children eat out together all the time, but they generally confine themselves to family spots.

This summer when we took my 12-year-old daughter and a few friends to dinner at Galatoire’s Bistro (Map it!), I wondered how the girls would handle the menu at one of Baton Rouge’s upper tier eateries. I also wondered how the other diners and wait staff would handle them.

Parents and children eat out together all the time here and around the country, but they generally confine themselves to family spots with relaxed vibes and special menus. Nice restaurants are, thankfully, different; but we’re so used to going casual these days that the uptick in expectations at an upscale spot can be a surprise.

The experience turned out great. The girls sat together at a separate table with us close by. They asked intelligent questions, and the server patiently answered them. There was enough white noise in the room to absorb their conversation and make them feel comfortable. And when one finicky member of the group was having a hard time finding something she liked, the server offered to have the chef deconstruct a chicken dish so that she could see and taste its components separately. It worked, and she left feeling excited about food.

“I want to make people happy,” Galatoire’s Bistro Chef Kelley McCann says, discussing the young diners topic. “I don’t want to miss the opportunity to turn somebody on to a dish. These are future customers.”

Young people can be unpredictable of course, and wait staffs aren’t always patient and accommodating. But if you’re considering a night out like this, take a few precautionary steps.

Have your diners preview the menus of a handful of local restaurants online to make sure they like what they see. Call ahead and talk to the manager about the noise level (some is good), and whether or not the chef and servers are comfortable with this age group.

We all benefit when we build the generation of food enthusiasts who have great memories of local restaurants.