Phone-free bars and restaurants on the rise across the U.S.

by Brajeshwar on 4/5/2026, 3:04:00 PM

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/05/phone-free-restaurants-bars-bans-restrictions-offline

Comments

by: wolvoleo

Hmm I love phone free nightclubs (or rather camera free, they tape off the cameras). Like techno clubs.<p>Not so much of a fan of this in bars and restaurants, sometimes you need to stay in touch with friends who are still arriving etc. Or often they change their mind "this place is cool, why don't you come to us instead of us coming to you?". But ok plenty of places to choose from.

4/5/2026, 4:59:10 PM

by: anonymousiam

There's a breakfast spot that I visit sometimes, with a sign on the wall that reads; "We do not have 'WiFi' -- Talk to each other -- Pretend it's 1995"

4/5/2026, 4:27:34 PM

by: quchen

There are a couple of communities that have almost no phone presence. Certain kinds of music festivals are an example, and it's really quite nice not having to worry about being filmed.

4/5/2026, 4:10:53 PM

by: Acrobatic_Road

Yes! Phones should be treated like smoking.

4/5/2026, 5:18:34 PM

by: SilverElfin

Great. It would be nice to normalize that as a feature. A cafe near me sort of has this by simply not offering WiFi and having a sign about it, and it works - there are people having conversations with their kids and with friends and with strangers there, while all other cafes seem to be mostly people on their phones and iPads (especially kids) and laptops. Also we need a total ban on meta glasses and other similar surveillance devices.

4/5/2026, 4:08:45 PM

by: gosub100

You could enforce this by making a farday cage out of the building. I looked into this for an irrational (5G is government poison) family member. I wasn't going to debate how RF works, just buy some points by helping her indulge her fantasy. But actual RF blocking copper mesh material is very expensive. I wonder if this could be done via wallpaper and printing using a conductive ink printed on the same pattern?

4/5/2026, 4:37:57 PM

by: afron_manyu

[dead]

4/5/2026, 4:59:11 PM

by: webdoodle

[flagged]

4/5/2026, 5:01:24 PM

by: throw949449