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Restaurants ban diners’ phones during meals as no-scroll trend grows: Put it away or else

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Diners at a growing number of restaurants and bars are being asked to stash away their phones — or even lock them up — as part of a push for more memorable nights out.

The trend is gaining traction across the U.S., with more spots experimenting with restrictions, incentives or locked pouches, Fox News Digital recently reported.

Charlotte cocktail bar Antagonist places guests’ phones in locked pouches for about two hours — while Delilah, an upscale supper club with locations across the country, has a no-phones, no-posting policy, according to Axios.

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Even Chick-fil-A has tested the tactic with a Maryland location offering free ice cream to families who keep phones off the table.

The trend is especially common at high-end, curated spots like listening bars, supper clubs, cocktail lounges and restaurants offering tasting menus, said Ben Tannenbaum, New York-based vice president of partnerships at nightlife company LineLeap.

“The driver isn’t really an anti-phone sentiment,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s that guests are going out less often than they used to and spending more per visit when they do, so operators are trying to make sure the visit delivers.”

The trend has been building for years, experts say, and it’s picked up speed as more people recognize the downsides of constant screen time.

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“The phone-free dining trend began prior to COVID, but it’s increased in momentum in recent years, especially as people have come to understand the negative impacts of overuse of personal devices,” Amanda Belarmino, a hospitality professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Fox News Digital.

She said unplugged meals can help diners stay focused on both their food and companions, and said it may even be financially savvy for restaurants.

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“Diners who are engaged in the experience are more likely to eat multiple courses or order a second drink,” she said.

They’re also more likely to enjoy their food if it hasn’t gotten cold while they’re busy snapping photos or reading other diners’ reviews before forming their own opinions, Belarmino noted.

Beyond business considerations, experts agree the movement reflects a return to long-standing social norms around dining.

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Being present while dining with others is a “timeless principle,” according to New York etiquette expert Nick Leighton.

“When your phone’s out, it’s sending the signal that whoever is with you at that moment isn’t as important as what’s on the phone,” Leighton told Fox News Digital.

Others say the trend is being driven by the mental strain of always being connected.

“The push behind phone-free dining is cognitive overload,” said Dr. Vinay Saranga, a psychiatrist and founder of The North Carolina Institute of Advanced NeuroHealth. “Phone-free dining offers a form of psychological relief that will foster meaningful connection again and allow us to focus on the present moment.”

But enforcing phone-free policies can come with trade-offs.

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“Enforcement is, at best, awkward in practice,” Tannenbaum said. “Pouches, signage and servers asking guests to put phones away all introduce friction that can undercut the experience the policy was trying to create.”

He does not expect phone-free dining to become the norm everywhere, and predicts it will last as a sub-category, not as an industry-wide shift.

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Former Giants co-owner Steve Tisch seen in team’s draft room

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Cameras showed former New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch in the team’s draft room Thursday night during the first round.

At one point, Tisch was seen standing near Giants head coach John Harbaugh. Despite no longer holding a majority stake in the NFL franchise, Tisch remains the Giants’ chairman of the board.

ESPN obtained an NFL memo last month detailing plans by Steve Tisch and his siblings to transfer their stake in the Giants to trusts for their children.

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“Prior transfers to these Trusts were completed pursuant to 2023 and 2024 Finance Committee approvals,” the memo stated. “The Sellers now propose to transfer their entire remaining interests, totaling 23.1% of the Club, to the Trusts. … Following the transactions, the Sellers will no longer own any interest in the Club.”

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It was not clear if the transfer requests were in any way related to Tisch’s name appearing in the Epstein files released by the U.S. Justice Department in January. Tisch’s name came up more than 400 times in the files. Tisch at the time said he knew Epstein but denied visiting Epstein’s island.

As for draft night, the Giants made what some viewed as an unconventional pick at No. 10, selecting offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa.

Before that, the Giants added another piece to their pass rush, selecting hybrid edge/off-ball linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 5.

Reese earned All-American honors at Ohio State and finished his first season as a full-time starter with 6.5 sacks.

Reese is set to join a pass rush that includes Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and, likely, Kayvon Thibodeaux.

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Rueben Bain’s short arms and tragic car accident history contributed to his NFL Draft slide

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Everybody knew about the tragic auto accident and the follow-up a year later, but when it came to Rueben Bain’s draft status, people said, “No worries.” His arms are short, but he’s really good, so the refrain remained: “No worries.”

Why then did Rueben Bain slide to the middle of the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday?

Whoever said neither issue would cause Bain to fall out of the Top 10 was obviously wrong.

He fell to the No. 15 overall selection held by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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And judging by Bain’s demeanor during his post-draft interview on ESPN, he wasn’t thrilled about it.

“I know I’m the best in the country, I’m sure,” an unsmiling Bain told ESPN’s Laura Rutledge after his selection. “That’s how I think of myself.

“I’m telling you I can do anything I put my mind to because of my mindset. I know when I get to this next level I’m going to pop it. “

The Buccaneers selected Bain to be their outside rusher complement to Vita Vea on the interior.

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The Bucs thus get the ACC defensive player of the year and a consensus All-American.

But they also get a player that multiple other pass-rush needy teams passed up. The New York Jets took TCU’s David Bailey with the No. 2 overall selection and the New York Giants picked Arvell Reese in the No. 5 slot.

Bain was not only the 15th player taken overall but the third edge defender. That’s considered great by any standard. But it’s a disappointment to Bain and changes the narrative on him somewhat.

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“He’s got to prove himself and beat the odds and prove he can get it done in the NFL,” draft guru Mel Kiper said on national TV.

Interestingly, most of the coverage of Bain’s slide focused on the short length of his arms.

Melvin Ingram once upon a time measured in with arms the spanned 31 1/2 inches. And although that is considered short, Ingram turned into a good player. He played 12 seasons and made three Pro Bowls.

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But Bain’s arms measured in at 30 7/8 inches, and that is extremely short. Indeed, it is the third-shortest arm length of any DE ever to participate in the combine.

So, is that the reason Bain dropped out of the Top 10?

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Or is it his driving troubles and the manner in which he addressed those with teams?

Bain, you should know, was driving in March of 2024 when he hit another car on South Florida’s I-95 in the 4 a.m. hour and set off a chain reaction — hitting an eastside concrete wall and then careening all the way across the highway to the westside concrete barrier — that eventually left passenger Destiny Betts in a coma.

Betts, who had not been wearing a seatbelt, died three months later from complications of her blunt force trauma injuries.

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Bain was charged but cleared of careless driving because, in part, the traffic homicide investigator said he received the final report after Bain had already paid his citation.

NFL teams were aware of all this, plus an ensuing accident the player had in October 2025, for which he was also charged with careless driving.

To make matters more dicey, Bain declined to be fully transparent about the accidents with some NFL teams he met with starting at the NFL combine. That disappointed at least one team, an evaluator on that team told OutKick.

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Bain also declined to discuss the matter on Wednesday in front of reporters.

The Buccaneers, however, feel good about Bain, his short arms and his questionable driving.

“We’ve known about this a long time,” said general manager Jason Licht. “I know it just came out a couple of weeks ago. It was a very tragic accident. Tragic experience for the family. And it’s something you never want to see happen.

“But he’s a good person who was involved in something that, you know, none of us ever want to be involved in and never want any of our loved ones involved in. But he loves football. He loves football.”

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Fernando Mendoza embraces wheelchair-bound mom after Raiders select him No 1 overall

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Fernando Mendoza shared the moment of being selected first overall in the NFL Draft with his family from home on Thursday night.

He was seen hugging his family, including his mother Elsa Mendoza, in a moment of celebration.

Despite being projected to be the first overall pick, Mendoza skipped the in-person draft in Pittsburgh to stay in Florida with his mother, who battles multiple sclerosis (MS) and is bound to a wheelchair.

Mendoza told reporters after he was drafted that he decided not to go to Pittsburgh to make it easier for his mother to travel to Las Vegas tomorrow when he visits his team. 

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When Mendoza was only about 4 years old, his mother was diagnosed with the disease. It is a chronic, autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that can affect the brain and spinal cord. She has spent the last few years in a wheelchair.

Elsa Mendoza wrote about the experience in a 2015 letter to her sons that was published in The Players Tribune.

“I was diagnosed about 18 years ago, but of course you never knew that. You and Alberto were so young, and I was doing fine… and mostly I didn’t want you to worry. It just felt like this impossible thing to place on you guys. On my sweet boys. And then I kept doing fine until about 10 years ago, when we went skiing and I broke my ankle and knee,” she wrote.

“But even after that, I wasn’t quite ready to tell you — only that my leg hadn’t healed all the way, which is why your mom had her limp. It wasn’t until five years ago, when I got Covid, that things started to go downhill in a way where there was no more hiding it. It was during football season, and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to travel. And the thought of you wondering if I supported you any less, because suddenly I wasn’t at your games? I hated that. So that’s when I knew we had to sit you and your brother down.”

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She went on to recall, “how hard of a conversation it ended up being. ‘Your mom has this degenerative disease… and while we don’t know how it will progress, it’s going to start to affect us in a few ways. But it won’t affect us in the ways that matter. We’ll have each other, and love each other, and be there for each other. I promise.'”

Both of Mednzoa’s parents grew up in Miami, Florida, as the children of Cuban refugees who fled communism after Fidel Castro rose to power in the country.

Mendoza’s father, Fernando Mendoza Sr., was a rower at Brown University and a 1987 Junior World Championships gold medalist.

But Mendoza’s father also played football when he was younger, and was teammates with Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal at Christopher Columbus High School during the 1980s. Mendoza would go on to defeat his father’s former teammate in this year’s CFP national championship game.

Meanwhile, his mother played tennis at the University of Miami.

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