My daughter has really been into magic and magicians lately. For her birthday we got her a magic set and she loves it. What got her interested in magic is the magician at the Gale Street Inn (4914 N. Milwaukee in Jefferson Park) who performs table side on Sunday nights. We have gone there three or four times to have dinner and see the magician perform. He always does the same tricks and then makes a balloon animal for each of the children at the table, however his act never gets old for my daughter. She loves him and I think he does a really good job. His tricks are fun and he is very good at engaging his audience. It definitely keeps everyone busy while we wait for our food to come and the food is pretty good. If you do go Sunday night I would highly recommend a reservation.
Today we went for brunch at Tre Kronor (Swedish restaurant at 3258 W. Foster) because every Sunday in July from 11 AM until 1:30 they are having a magician come in and perform tricks table side. Next weekend is the last Sunday that he will be there. We like to go to Tre Kronor because they have good food (especially breakfast) but it always takes forever to get your food - especially if there is more than four people in your group. So we jumped at the chance to have our kids entertained while we waited for brunch ... and my daughter had been begging to go see the magician. The magician came to our table and only spent a couple of minutes with us (much less time than at Gale Street Inn). He only did one trick but my daughter of course loved it. Right now any trick that a magician does is amazing to her so for us it was worth the trip and the cost of brunch. That being said, the magician was a bit awkward and really didn't spend much time at any given table so unless you want an excuse to go to Tre Kronor or have a little one who loves magic like we do it probably wouldn't be worth a special trip.
One other place that we have been to that provides some entertainment for the kids while you wait for your food is Scoozi (Italian restaurant at 410 W. Huron). On Sunday nights only they set up a pizza making station for kids. Your waiter/waitress will put your child on a list and when its their turn escort them over to the pizza prep area. This is nice because it ensures that the table is never over crowded with kids. Your child will then get to put on a chef hat and apron and put sauce and cheese on the prepared pizza dough. They then get to pick out a small toy to keep (my girls got little wind up motorcycles). The activity in itself doesn't take very long but it is a nice little distraction from waiting for their food and it is something that kids think is so fun. When we went to the restaurant we made reservations and it does seem like the place fills up pretty quickly. Also the timing can be a little off in terms of when your child's pizza is done and the rest of your food comes. My daughter was actually done eating right around the time the rest of us started eating - but she's been wanting to go back ever since.
All of these dining experiences were unique and fun and have made us want to go back. I think having these kind of activities is probably well worth any cost for restaurants due to increased business and wish more restaurants offered similar events. If you have the kind of restaurant that welcomes kids or even just welcomes kids on certain days (i.e. days when they are slow) this is a sure fire way to get a lot of families to come in. The city is full of parents who want to go out to dinner (and not just to "kid" restaurants) and I wish more restaurants would acknowledge this potential customer base.
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