Restaurant customer kicked out for wearing Google Glass

SEATTLE — Nick Starr is among the first people to own a Google Glass.

"I wear it everywhere I go," he said.

Last week, that got him kicked out of Lost Lake Cafe, on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

Co-owner David Meinert doesn't allow the new internet-browsing glasses, which can record video and audio and take photos.

"One, I think they make you look stupid," Meinert said.

More importantly, Meinert says they have the potential to violate the privacy of other customers.

"I think we need our laws and our social etiquette to catch up with our technology," Meinert said.

Starr says a voice command to have the Glass record video, and a prism visible near his eye, make it difficult to use the glasses surreptitiously.

"I don't like my photo being taken, I don't like being on camera, so I understand that aspect of it, but I know that everywhere I look there's a camera, there's a photo, there's someone taking a selfie that I might be in the background of," Starr said.

Starr says he wore his Google Glass to the same restaurant several times before without a problem.

He was so upset about being kicked out, he posted on Facebook calling for the worker to be fired.

"I'd sooner have no self-entitled tech nerds coming to my business than firing one of my employees over something like that," Meinert said in response.

After facing intense criticism online, Starr says he now regrets calling for the worker's firing.

Meinert also owns the Five Point Cafe, in Belltown, where he announced a Google Glass ban even before it was available.

He is now having signs about the ban made to put beside the door of Lost Lake Cafe.

KIRO