Tom Kerridge is wrong about Meta glasses

I have a ton of respect for Tom Kerridge. His campaign to reduce hospitality VAT is proper grassroots advocacy, and he uses his platform to speak about the brutal realities of running venues in Britain today.

But when he recently shrugged off the wearing of Meta’s £359 smart glasses, claiming “filming is part of everyday life now” and that we should embrace their “creative and exciting ways,” I choked on my Chianti.

Tom, mate, you’ve missed the mark completely here.

There’s a world of difference between a customer taking an Insta shot of one of my infamous cheese toasties on an iPhone and someone sitting at my bar wearing cats-eye Ray-Bans with a hidden camera pointing directly at the couple on date night at table four.

In my mind, holding up a phone creates a visible, social contract. Everyone in the room knows you’re taking a photo, and if you’re being obnoxious, the floor manager can step in.

Smart glasses shatter that boundary, turning everyday punters into unwitting background extras for someone’s TikTok feed and undermining the relaxed sanctuary of the British pub, cafe and bar. Plus, it exposes my hard-working front-of-house team to covert, non-consensual recording.

Jeremy King gets it, Tim Martin at Wetherspoons gets it, and even Soho House bans them. Pubs and restaurants are where people go to let their hair down, complain about their boss, drop their guard, and enjoy a meal in peace – not to worry whether the bloke across the room is live-streaming their conversation.

Which is why, as of this week, Meta glasses are banned from my venue, with one exception….

The massive caveat is accessibility. I read a great letter in The Guardian recently about how smart glasses aren’t just a flashy toy for content creators or tech bros.

For neurodivergent people, those with severe anxiety, or visually impaired guests, smart lenses can be a life-changing tool providing real-time audio descriptions, live text translation, and navigation aid that allows disabled people to navigate a busy, noisy dining room independently.

If I slap a blanket “NO SMART GLASSES ALLOWED” sticker on my door without thinking, I risk turning away guests with genuine inclusion needs.

We don’t ban wheelchairs because they take up floor space, so we shouldn’t ban assistive technology just because Mark Zuckerberg decided to pimp a pair of sunglasses with a camera.

How to build a Smart Specs policy for your venue

Instead of issuing a brutal, blanket ban that lands you in an accessibility lawsuit, try this approach to putting together a sensible Meta Glasses policy:

1. Focus on recording, not the eyewear: Don’t make your policy “No smart glasses.” rather “No non-consensual filming or recording.” Make it clear that while smart frames can be worn, the camera function must be turned off while inside the premises.

2. Train your staff to ask, not attack: Coach your team to handle this with a quiet, polite inquiry: “Hi there, just to let you know that we don’t allow filming inside the venue. Are those recording, or are you using them for personal/assistive use?”

3. Know the assistive exemption: If a guest explains they use the glasses for visual impairment, live audio translation, or neurodivergent assistance, they stay on. A single blink from the capture light is normal – that’s just the photo behind their AI query. If it starts flashing continuously (video), or they’re clearly filming other guests, the filming rule applies regardless of the device.

4. Protect your staff first: Make sure your house rules explicitly state that customers cannot film employees without their express consent. Your team deserves a safe workplace, free from being secretly recorded while working.

I love Tom Kerridge, but catering to influencer culture at the expense of guest privacy is a race to the bottom. I say ban the spy cameras, preserve the sanctuary of the pub, but leave the door open for those who actually need the tech.

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