Though L only recently graduated to “solid” foods such as scrambled egg and lentils, the girl still has eaten at some pretty swanky restaurants.

In our family, the equation is simple: Powergirl and I like to dine out, and we generally don’t let the baby stop us from heading out for a night (or a lunch) at our favorite eateries in and around California’s Wine Country.

This weekend, for instance, we dragged the kid to a lunch at the Norman Rose Tavern in downtown Napa. Thursday, we’ll bring her with us to dinner at Sonoma County’s famous Farmhouse Restaurant (this is for a story; there is no way on Earth we could afford to go to the Farmhouse on a random Thursday night).

Whenever we bring L, we are hyper-sensitive to the baby disrupting those around us, we order her something (even if it’s just a side) and we tip excessively. Still, according to San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer, local restaurateurs hate us.

In a recent article, Bauer laid out the financial considerations behind how children affect restaurants’ bottom lines.

The column was brought about by an email from T.J. Jacobberger, managing partner of the Tavern at Lark Creek in nearby Marin County. In the email, Jacobberger runs the numbers on why it doesn’t pay for restaurants to welcome kids. Bauer shares the note verbatim, even including some rudimentary math that the restaurant partner conveyed.

Naturally, the email pissed off a lot of people—at last check, the online version of the column had registered 690 comments (trust me, this is a ton for the Chronicle). Still, as a business owner myself, it has gotten me thinking: Is it disrepectful to bring the kid when we head out to eat?