The nightly dinner shows at 8 and 12 were regularly packed and were as well known for celebrities in the audience as for those onstage.

At the same time, there is growing evidence that such bedrock rituals as a nightly dinner are giving way as more children are raised in single-parent homes or by mothers and fathers with demanding jobs.

Others are less delighted, weary of children who reject the nightly dinner.

In high season, the restaurant serves Sunday brunch ($10 with drink) and nightly dinner (about $16 with a drink).

I managed to stop checking the camp Web site long enough to finish my magazine piece, and I began to enjoy the nightly dinners out and the mornings sleeping in.

Other parents say that depending on the season, nightly dinners can be almost impossible to pull off.

Edwin was part of a trio of waiters who rotated with us to each of the theme restaurants for nightly dinners, and he was turning into a surrogate uncle.

The nightly four-course fixed-price dinner is $47, but with extras a couple can easily spend $150 for dinner and wine.

Through its nightly dinners in the Beard House in Greenwich Village and its annual awards, the foundation has provided a springboard to fame for virtually every well-known American chef of the last two decades.

In the food world, she says, the annual Beard Awards pack the punch of Oscars; likewise, chefs invited to cook at Beard House's nightly dinners are gastronomy's version of "made men."