Wearing at hat while dining

[Robin Garr]

Would you also consider this bastion of New Orleans society uncouth and ill-mannered?

No, probably just delightfully eccentric. If you want to dress up exactly as he did, Phil, and dine in an appropriate local setting (perhaps the bar at Buck's?) then I don't think anyone will criticize you.

Hats for patio dining? I don't have a strong feeling about that. The hat issue, really, comes up most often with baseball caps, not classy fedoras, mainly because they just plain got no class. I don't think my grandmother would sneer at you for wearing your fedora for patio dining.

I can't stand baseball caps and have gotten into countless arguments with friends over what I considered the "nerdiness" of their Brewers baseball hat. They continuously pointed to "movie stars" in magazines wearing these baseball hats and my comment was they do this mostly to hide from the papparazzi. Even so, no one ever called LA the center of sophistication and aplomb.

Thus Robin, are you saying that if I can carry off an eccentric, Tom Wolfe, kind of look, you wouldn't be against wearing a fedora inside at a fine restaurant.

You can have my Twins or my Canadiens baseball hats when you pry them from my cold dead hands!

This whole no hats on indoors EVER mentality will always baffle me.

Is it just not wearing hats indoors or is it etiquette in general they you don't understand? Taking a hat off when you go indoors is just one of the basic rules of etiquette plain and simple no matter what style hat it is but baseball caps of any kind are certainly the worst.

I love wearing hats. I don't mean the baseball cap variety, but a fedora akin to what you saw on every man's head before the mid 1960s. Supposedly, JFK ended the hat trend when he went bare headed at his inauguration in 1961. However, my wife Donna says it is very inappropriate to wear a hat while dining in a restaurant. Yet, if I take my hat off, inevitably I have "hat head," and my hair looks like a rat's nest. I think I look very hip and trendy with a hat on my head. What is your opinion? Are hats inappropriate while dining? Let me know. Phil

This is not really an etiquitte issue. It is just fine to wear your ball cap to BW3s, Chili's, WW Cousins, Shennanigans, or whatever.

The problem is Phil, a fedora is inappropriate at all times, indoors or outdoors, on anyone under the age of 80. The only exception would be a Tom Landry costume at a halloween party or, if you a man of slight stature and are driving a very large nursing home grade buick, you can wear one to put other drivers at ease and let them know that there is infact someone behind the wheel.

Good luck!

Awww, Greg, that's cold, man. I love Fedoras! Well, on a guy, I mean.

Only at a high end establishment should anyone care about such a thing...anywhere else it's ridiculous to be so snobby to make a deal over a damned hat. I personally don't give a care whether someone may want to keep their hat on or not...I'm just greatful to have lot's of people that want to come over and eat dinner at my house..Unconditional friendship I say...just as long as you wear a shirt,shoes,and pants come as you are hat or no hat. I agree with the other MIKE G I never understood this kind of stupidity about a hat on or off....for goodness sake just eat and stop worrying about the guy in the corner of the restaurant with his hat on....my god I'm there for the food not fashion. The same people bitching over a hat at the table are usally the ones talking with their mouthes full of food yuk!!! there is a manner more people ought to care about.

How do you know I'm not over 80? Besides, a Buick has a built in Prostate examination that come in very handy when you are wearing a fedora.
All I can say, a fedora looks good on Brad Pitt and he is not over 80. If his fedora can attract Angelie Jolie, it can't be all bad.....................

Phil, if you want to rock the fedora, you have to have the confidence to rock the fedora! Don't question it, just do it!

Fashion evolves like everything else. If you want to wear the hat, wear the hat! You might get a few extra people looking at you, but that doesn't scare you, right?

The general attitude being expressed about the acceptability of wearing a hat indoors just further demonstrates the overall decline in civilization. People are too much about themselves and not what is appropriate or acceptable in a situation. If you look back in the 50s and earlier a gentleman would rather be dead then being caught wearing a hat of any kind indoors. Of course there are many other thing that have deteriorated during the same time but this is certainly a glaring example of the trend. I suppose those advocating wearing their hat indoors also don't take them off for the playing of the National Anthem when at sporting event!

New Orleans style is not quite southern style. If it makes your outfit, you gotta roll with it!

My mother raised me to never wear a hat at the table.

The general attitude being expressed about the acceptability of wearing a hat indoors just further demonstrates the overall decline in civilization. People are too much about themselves and not what is appropriate or acceptable in a situation. If you look back in the 50s and earlier a gentleman would rather be dead then being caught wearing a hat of any kind indoors. Of course there are many other thing that have deteriorated during the same time but this is certainly a glaring example of the trend. I suppose those advocating wearing their hat indoors also don't take them off for the playing of the National Anthem when at sporting event!

very well said

Sometimes etiquette crosses into the area of enforced convention. As a former member of what I will clumsily call "the Woodstock Nation," if we didn't question convention and conformity, music, art, literature, and most importantly, social and political concepts would have remained antediluvian and reactionary. I was asking how people felt about hats being worn inside at a restaurant, I didn't expect to be labeled rude, crude, and Philestine. I like my hats and I promise if anyone says my chapeau makes them feel uncomfortable, I will gladly remove it. However, if my face makes them squirm, I am not able to remove that.

Sometimes etiquette crosses into the area of enforced convention. As a former member of what I will clumsily call "the Woodstock Nation," if we didn't question convention and conformity, music, art, literature, and most importantly, social and political concepts would have remained antediluvian and reactionary. I was asking how people felt about hats being worn inside at a restaurant, I didn't expect to be labeled rude, crude, and Philestine. I like my hats and I promise if anyone says my chapeau makes them feel uncomfortable, I will gladly remove it. However, if my face makes them squirm, I am not able to remove that.

fwiw, my mom was AT woodstock
and still taught me manners

the way she put it, 'respect is to be shown to the people who are gracious enough to host/afford me the luxuries of their labors, whether they require it of me or not.'

thats just my take on things.
no harm intended.