Where to eat

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Getting a family of six to agree on where to dine out can be as a futile as trying to boo at a Bruce Springsteen concert. One kid won’t eat anything spicy. One kid hates all food—except spicy stuff. One kid hates cheese and has a bunch of made-up-sounding allergies. And one kid, the pickiest of all, will only drink milk straight from his mother’s teat. That’s literally the only thing we can get this kid to eat. He’s 2 months old.

Mama refuses to eat anywhere with an animatronic bear. I’ve been banned from the mall following an unfortunate-but-hilarious incident during my teens. Plus, I’ve been known to launch into eyeroll-inducing lectures about supporting small, local businesses whenever one of the kids suggests some corporate chain.

Still, we’ve found a nice rotation of local spots to take the brood. Our favorites include El Adobe (great grub that appeals to kids and adults, and they secretly have the best French fries in town), Sup (“Every dish you get has a cookie!” exclaimed Josephine, age 11), Laughing Planet (it’s basically a vegetarian cafeteria, but the kids like the kids menu, smoothies and play table), Bertha Miranda’s (kids eat free on Tuesdays, and there are arcade games), and Wild Garlic Pizza & Pub (Pizza! Board games! Beer!).

(It’s been brought to my attention that the analogy in the lede of this column might need some explaining. See, Bruce Springsteen is an American singer-songwriter. He’s very popular—I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him. But, then again, he’s also pretty old. Anyway, his fans like to scream “BRUUUUUUUCE” at the top of their lungs during concerts. To the uninitiated, it basically sounds like booing, so if you were to actually boo, people would just assume you were ecstatic.)

Anyway. Hope you enjoy this week’s family dining-themed feature package.