TTBG #4: Hats Are For Outside, Not The Restaurant

Admittedly, there are not a lot of violators in this category. But the ones who do are egregiously ignoring not just a simple gentlemanly move, but just plain common sense. When has it ever been okay for a guy to wear a hat inside of a restaurant? And why would it be okay?

It's not raining meatballs inside. You don't need to protect your hair from the sunlight. The restaurant isn't so cold that you're losing heat from your head.

And if you are at an outdoor restaurant and you're wearing a fedora like you're Jason freakin' Mraz, do us all a favor and just stop. Show yourself the door and walk into traffic. Because it doesn't get worse than that.

In all seriousness though, I have seen this happen before and it baffles me. It wasn't like I was at Mooo or Davio's in downtown Boston (both nice steakhouses), because those restaurants would actually tell you to remove a hat if you were wearing one.

Nope, I've been at several establishments where it wasn't quite nice enough to tell the guy to take his hat off, but you can be sure that he was drawing stares from those around him. I don't know if the wife/girlfriend/fiance/mistress just didn't care or didn't notice, but he should know better regardless.

The gray area is when you are at a bar that serves decent food at it. A laid-back environment like this may lead to the belief that a man doesn't need to remove his hat. But here is a good rule of thumb for that: if you even have to think about this at any point, then the hat should probably come off. Anything above a fast-food chain should scream "take it off" and is also another good rule to adhere to in the future.

To recap: don't wear a hat in a bar, don't wear it in a club, don't wear it in a restaurant. If you have to even stop and think about it, then it should come off. End of story.

Notable exception: bars that show sporting events ONLY when said sporting event is on and others in attendance have a hat on.

Previous Entries
#1 Stop Peeing on the Seat#2 Put the Toilet Seat Down when Finished
#3 Eat to the Pace of Your Company