The economics of the restaurant business are strange and confusing. But Dave writes that he couldn’t help but find this deal at Ruby Tuesday amusing. You can have a nice salad bar lunch for $7.99…or some mini sandwiches or burgers and fries along with salad bar access for $7.99. After 3 p.m., the price for the salad bar goes up fifty cents…but the price of the sandwiches does not.

I noticed this strange pricing issue on the Ruby Tuesdays menu. Their new Pimento Cheese Sandwich minis item (available in the Combinations section) is $7.99 with the salad bar. The salad bar, itself, is $7.99 ($8.49 after 3 p.m.). So basically, you get the sandwiches for free until 3… and after 3 they PAY YOU fifty cents to take the sandwiches in addition to the salad bar!

If you go to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner just for the salad bar, order the Pimento Cheese Sandwich Minis combo and have them hold the sandwiches to save fifty cents.

(The item with just the salad bar is cut off of Dave’s picture, but it is on the menu.)

Asking them to hold the sandwiches will probably make your server’s brain explode, but I dare someone to try this and take the sandwiches home.

I remember having this argument with my parents in a Ponderosa restaurant circa 1995.

Mom: Order a steak. Steak with the salad bar is only $1 more than just the salad bar, which you always get.
Me: But I don’t eat steak.
Dad: I’ll eat the $1 steak.
Me: *exaggerated teenage sigh and eyeroll* FINE.

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