There was a lot of hullaballoo about Ko seemingly serving amuse-bouches based on gender, and today Frank Bruni reveals that while some restaurants still practice this — at Forge, Bruni got crispy chicken wings while his female companions got cucumber soup — most of them are paying less attention to gender roles, while at the same time finding them hard to escape.

Apiary dispensed with a feature in its order-trafficking software that made it easier to serve women first, though it’s now tabling orders on a case-by-case basis after chivalry-minded customers complained. Danny Abrams added more meat dishes to the menu after realizing that mint-green walls and sparkly sconces were attracting a female-heavy clientele to Smith’s. Stephen Starr says of female diners, “If it’s something that says chorizo with some sort of egg, they’ll eat it. If it’s a suckling pig, they’re not going near it.”

Most intriguing to us were the restaurants that might be considered “male” and “female,” based on the clientele they attract. Bruni’s breakdown:

Testoster-zones
Babbo
Alto
Cru

Breastinations
Elettaria
Otto
Convivio
Smith’s (?)

More suggestions? Leave em in the comments!

Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner?