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We can look at Allen’s mini-history of a mini-food as a metaphor for how cuisine has come to be divided in contemporary North America: The prime cuts go to the adults while the less healthy morsels — dressed up in extra salt, fat and sugar and processed almost beyond recognition — end up on the kids’ menu, both in the family restaurants that traffic in such fare, and at home.

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After enacting a sudden ban on “small screaming children,” a Cape Breton fine dining establishment has unwittingly found itself at the centre of a nationwide tug-of-war over the place of unruly kids at restaurant tables.

“Effective as of now, we will no longer allow small, screaming children,” read a Sunday night post on the Facebook page of Cape Breton Island’s Lobster Pound and Moore. “We are an adult-themed restaurant that caters to those who enjoy food and are out to enjoy themselves.”

An immediate barrage of “hate and threats” forced restaurant owner Richard Moore to reverse the policy and issue a lengthy plea for forgiveness. But his apology post, was flooded with messages of support.

“Stick to your guns!!” wrote a woman from Halifax. “If your kids can’t behave in a restaurant … DONT TAKE THEM!!” wrote a mother from Ontario. “Don’t apologize for something we all think,” wrote a woman from Montreal.

It is a scenario that has played out dozens of times before: A restaurant bans loud or misbehaving children — sometimes in a fit of pique — and instantly finds themselves either lionized or vilified by opposing camps of parent and diner alike.