Quandry

I have a bit of a quandry on my hands.

A few months ago, Bob did some volunteer work for a private school here in Bend. A new cell tower was constructed very close to their school and they had made it known to the local paper that they were afraid that the RF would somehow hurt the children attending the school. Bob called them and volunteered his time to go out there and do the RF readings on the tower (his prior experience at Qualcomm had come in handy) to let them know how strong they were.

In return, the school mailed us a $100 gift certificate to a local restaurant called Baltazar's.

While visiting with my neighbor a few weeks after receiving the gift certificate she proceeded to tell me how her and her husband went to dinner at that very restaurant. She had taken her four month old baby with them since he was still being nursed. Evidently the wait staff was extremly rude to them and told them that they would have to put the baby on the floor since they didn't have highchairs. They have no intention of every returning to the restaurant.

Then I just received an email from the mother's group that I belong to here in Bend with a woman's account of her experience at the same restaurant. She had a similar experience as my neighbor and she wrote a letter to the manager expressing her dissatisfaction for the rudeness she received there. He called her back and basically told her he didn't like children and he didn't want them in his restaurant. He then told her off with some profanity and hung up on her.

So, I now have this gift certificate for a restaurant owned and operated by a jerk. It isn't just the fact that he doesn't want children there, it is that he was such a jerk to this woman. Now, the demographics of Bend are such that basically everyone that doesn't already have a kid is pregnant or planning on getting pregnant some time soon. This guy has just cut off a huge portion of the dining patrons of Bend.

What do I do? Do I have someone babysit long enough for us to use this gift certificate sans kids knowing the experiences of other people? Do I just not use the gift certificate at all? Do I save it and give it to someone else who doesn't have kids? Do I go in and ask for a the dollar value in cash for the certificate knowing they most likely won't give it to me? I could use some suggestions.