The patio at Kim Bartmann’s Tiny Diner is a little slice of paradise where kids can explore flowers and herbs, or cozy up in a branch Teepee for a quiet minute. Ok, a quiet 20 seconds. Let them traverse the winding paths through Tiny Diner’s charming gardens while you sip on a housemade soda and finish off their grass-fed burger.

Kids can release their inner Picasso by participating in a drawing contest and win prizes like hats or tiny mugs, all donated by vendors. The children’s menu includes three panels and little patrons can draw inside the bottom panel. Winners are chosen periodically by staff and get to have their masterpiece displayed in the next kids menu.

That's right. Bring a baby to a bar. Send them off to the far corners of the massive lawn and they will be safe while staying out of trouble (probably.) In cooler days, the kind folks at Surly have created a little nook for busy hands under the staircase in the main dining hall. Still in sight, but quite possibly out of mind.

Tilia is well known as a welcoming neighborhood bistro, and little diners feel the love when they are handed “Busy Boxes”- colorful lunch boxes filled with rubbery toys, tiny notebooks, markers and other trinkettes. The kids menu is a toy in of itself, printed on one of those paper fortune teller doohickeys usually reserved for revealing a second grader’s future spouse. Adventurous tots can dine on stir fried shrimps or stick to classics like cheeseburgers. Either way, they get a cookie if they clear their plates.

Longfellow Grill is a popular family destination for several reasons. For one, the kiddos can run circles around that weirdly cool flame statue outside while waiting for a table. The patio is always boisterous and children’s meals are served on adorable retro plastic trays straight out of The Brady Bunch. Much to the delight of customers old and young, Longfellow serves breakfast all day and their buttermilk pancakes come shaped like Mickey Mouse.