When Tina and Marvin Pate travel to Cancún or the Dominican Republic, they enjoy the happiness that good music, delicious food and the absence of children bring.
When they opened Bliss Caribbean Restaurant in St. Louis County, Missouri, in May, the couple decided to give their customers the same joy — by requiring all female customers to be at least 30 years old and all men to be 35 years old .
“We decided to open an entire restaurant where adults could go on vacation at a fraction of the cost,” Mr. Pate said.
That rule has drawn a lot of attention to Bliss on social media, resulting in crowded dance parties and what the restaurant calls a “grown-up and sexy” atmosphere.
But the requirement also raises some legal questions, as experts point out that the restaurant treats men and women differently.
“My knee-jerk reaction is that it’s technically illegal,” Sarah Jane Hunt, owner and managing partner of the St. Louis-based law firm Kennedy Hunt, PC, said in an interview. Ms. Hunt specializes in discrimination claims.
Since Bliss Caribbean Restaurant opened in May, news media have covered the restaurant and its reign, and residents have taken to social media, particularly to praise the policy.
“It stops all the riffraff that’s going on in St. Louis,” said Sean McLemore, a 50-year-old St. Louis resident who was dining at Bliss Caribbean Restaurant. “The atmosphere is really chilled. It’s a great environment.”
A lack of youth does not mean that bliss lacks energy. On weekends the restaurant stays open until 1:30 a.m. As night turns to morning, diners abandon their plates of fried red snapper and turn the restaurant’s white marble floor into a dance party.
“They enjoy the food and the music, and they love the age restriction,” Ms. Pate said. “They love the sophisticated experience.”
The Pates are both 42 years old and have Caribbean roots. They say it is not their intention to discriminate against anyone. With a child on the way, the couple isn’t trying to “keep young people away, like they’re bringing the riffraff with them,” Ms. Pate explained. It’s just about creating an environment in which older customers feel comfortable.
They can dress in fun outfits and listen to music from artists of their generation, such as Sade and Jagged Edge, Mr. Pate said.
However, legal experts say that despite the restaurant owner’s best intentions, the restaurant’s age requirements may not be legally compliant. Travis Crum, an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, said the restaurant may be violating the Missouri Human Rights Act, although federal law does not generally prohibit age restrictions in public spaces.
The law “prohibits discrimination by public institutions on the basis of sex” in addition to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry or disability, Mr. Crum explained.
Bliss Caribbean Restaurant wrote in a Facebook post that “all guests must be at least 30 years old for women and at least 35 years old for men.” Driver’s licenses will be checked at the door to ensure anyone approaching the age limit is in compliance, owners confirmed in a telephone interview.
Chance Bontrager of Topeka, Kan., expressed frustration with the policy on the restaurant’s Facebook page. He is 33 years old and cannot go to a restaurant.
“I did not choose what day/month/year I was born, any more than I chose what color my skin would be when I arrived,” Mr. Bontrager wrote in a message to the New York Times. “These are equivalent standards.”
Mr Crum disagrees. The restaurant would have “the right” to require all guests to be at least 30 years old, Mr. Crum said. Problems arise when the age requirement differs depending on gender.
“If the attorney general’s office were to step in and try to stop this practice,” Mr. Crum said, “I have little doubt that they would be able to issue an injunction and say, ‘You have to get rid of this policy.’ ”
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking about the legality of the restaurant regulation.
When asked about legal concerns, Tina and Marvin Pate reiterated that they did not want to ban anyone from their restaurant.
Bliss Caribbean Restaurant is not the first restaurant to deny guests entry based on age, although the threshold is typically lower. Many bars and some restaurants restrict entry to those under 21. For example, Nettie’s House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, posted on its Facebook page in February 2023 that children under 10 were no longer allowed in the restaurant.
The Pates say the age restrictions at Bliss Caribbean Restaurant allow customers to be themselves.
“People absolutely love it,” Mr. Pate said. “They love the culture. They love the food.”
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2024-06-12 15:45:04
www.nytimes.com
