There are a lot of rules when you visit Soho Tea and Coffee in Dupont. Customers must spend at least $5 to use the wireless Internet. No credit cards are taken. Non-customers are charged $3 to use the unisex bathroom, adorned with a helpful reminder than only one person is permitted in the single stall at a time. Two months ago, another rule went into effect: no cell phones at the front counter.

Owner Helene Bloom told us multi-tasking at the register was beginning to create unmanageable lines. “It’s really hard to wait on somebody while they’re talking in the phone,” she said, adding it’s also “very disturbing to other customers when you’ve got a line halfway down” the cafe.

Leah Thomas, sipping a smoothy while checking e-mail, said she wishes mobile phones were completely gone from the cafe. “People on cell phones talk way louder than they would to the person sitting across the table,” Thomas observed.

While some customers may balk at the idea, Bloom isn’t alone in asking patrons to hang up. Murky Coffee also requests that people don’t chat and order at the same time. What to some seems like common courtesy to cashiers and people on the other line is now company policy.

Some swankier restaurants have taken a firmer stance. The award-winning Maestro curbs phone use in the dining room at all times. Russell Gravatt, manager of Sushi Ko explains the need for the restaurant’s all-out phone ban. “People are no longer considerate. They only attend to their own needs and are not aware of other people around them,” Gravatt told one reporter.

It’s more than a cliche to say Americans can’t live without their mobile phones, but area restaurants are still feeling their way towards a balance between patrons’ need to communicate and their desire to create an efficient and appealing business. The always persnickety Tom Sietsema echos many diners’ frustration with eating out next to someone yakking away. Guess not everyone enjoys hearing the details of the latest subcommittee meeting or legal maneuver. Do you see a growing trend among Washington restaurants or is phone prohibition a passing fad? What’s the craziest conversation you’ve overheard in between soup and salad?

Photo by Flickr user begutierrez.