Restaurants and bars are increasingly treating smartphones the way venues once treated cigarettes, encouraging or outright banning their use at the table in an effort to boost genuine conversation and restore focus on food and company. The trend marks a reversal from a decade ago, when many fine-dining establishments relaxed phone rules because customers wanted to photograph their meals for social media; now several venues are moving the other way, with even large chains beginning to introduce restrictions.

Methods vary widely: London's Spy Bar places a sticker over customers' camera lenses at the door, while Antagonist in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Trophy Room in Phoenix, Arizona, lock phones away in pouches or a filing cabinet for the duration of the visit. Al Condominio in Verona, Italy, takes a softer approach, offering a free bottle of wine to diners who surrender their phones before eating, an offer reportedly accepted by 90% of customers. Pizza Express has introduced phone-free afternoons and Wetherspoons now asks customers to keep devices on silent, suggesting the practice is spreading from independent venues into mainstream chains.