I think this is a fantastic idea. Just like with the smoking and no-smoking areas within a restaurant, you’ll get a little spill over, but it’d be really nice to be justified to ask someone to step away with their cell phone conversation. (Just the other day I was waiting for John to come out of a store, and I listened to a woman’s entire cell phone conversation, in which she gave out her address and phone number! HELLO??!??) If cell phone companies really wanted to make people happy (and restaurant people especially) they’d develop a microphone where you can talk low and whisper and still have it be completely easy to hear on the other end, without picking up any background noise. If I’m going to overhear people talking while I’m eating my chicken burrito platter, I want to hear BOTH ends of the conversation and they better only be in the next booth – LOL.
In other foodish news, this article reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with Kramer being on strike at the bagel place. Life imitating art imitating life.