Google Glass wearing customer gets the boot from Seattle restaurant

Back in March, we told you about a Seattle based bar called The 5 Point Cafe which decided it was going to ban Google Glass. Owner Dave Meinert admitted that his bar is a dive and he wanted to protect his regulars from being photographed without knowing by Glass wearers. Meinert happens to own a restaurant in the city called "Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge".

On the eatery's Facebook page is a stylized "No Google Glass" logo and a story is posted about a patron to the restaurant who was booted for wearing Google Glass. According to the Facebook page, "We recently had to ask a rude customer to leave because of their insistence on wearing and operating Google Glasses inside the restaurant."

While Meinert is a business owner standing up for his customers, it is possible to take clandestine pictures using a smartphone camera, so why not ban smartphones? In addition, the policy at the Lost Lakes is somewhat confusing. Nick Starr, the person who was tossed from the restaurant, repeated his side of the story on his Facebook page. Starr says that despite showing up at the Lost Lakes before wearing the connected specs, this time he was told to remove the Google Glass he was wearing or he would have to leave. When he pressed the night manager for any posted sign that banned the device from the premises, none could be found.


To avoid a problem, Star and his partner, Brian Street, decided to leave the restaurant. On the way out, Street recalled that right on the menu, the Lost Lake Cafe & Lounge practically solicited pictures from patrons, telling them to post any photos taken at the establishment to its Instagram page at #LostLakeCafe. According to Star, "So how is an establishment which is REQUESTING photos be taken, not allow me to bring a device which takes photos and can post to Instagram?". Sounds like a legitimate question to us.


source: LostLakes, NickStarr via PCMag