Mini Gourmand Critics? Kids Eat Free At Three Michelin-Starred Per Se This Fall

For the upper echelon of New York, traditional child-friendly fare simply will not do.For these kids, Happy Meals are traded in for hors d'oeuvres, and pâté is preferential to pizza. Trend alert: Kids are dining at three-star restaurants and liking it.

This fall, for one day only, September 18, kids under 16 who have never eaten at Thomas Keller's Per Se will dine for free8, according to The New York Times. A seven-course menu will be served to the children between 11 am and 1:30 pm. Their guardians will pay a reduced rate of $215 for their own meals, not including alcohol (the regular price for such a repast costs around $300).

Sounds like this could be a three-ring, er, -star circus, but apparently mini Michelin connoisseurs are in vogue. Nibble + Squeak, for instance, is a toddler dining group where culinary-minded babies and toddlers can eat (with their caretakers) in high-end Manhattan restaurants like Betony, Marta, Cosme, and even Per Se (on a separate occasion) — though unfortunately not for free. Tickets, of course, don't run cheap. The Betony lunch costs $93 per ticket plus fees. In case you're counting, that's about 28.26 Happy Meals-worth of food for your tot.