Don’t like Phones at The Dinner Table?

The Phone Stack: “Don’t Be a Di*k at Dinner”

The Phone Stack! Also known as “Don’t Be a Di*k During Meals with Friends,” The Phone Stack is a clever game designed to curb smartphone distractions while dining out. Once everyone’s ordered, each person places their phone face down in the center of the table, sometimes even stacked, as the name suggests. Throughout the meal, buzzing, ringing, or notifications are ignored. The first person who can’t resist and grabs their device are on the hook for the entire check.

And people are loving it.

Dave McGinn of Canada’s Globe and Mail calls it “brilliant,” and it’s clearly striking a chord with diners. Elie Ayrouth at Foodbeast calls it the “ultimate in dining/phone etiquette” and one of the “coolest pieces of socially engineered live gaming” he’s ever seen. The challenge is simple but powerful: “Is that text message really worth everyone else’s dinner?”

Lana Backman