Whatever you might think of mom’s breastfeeding their young children in public, there are generally laws protecting those women. The same can’t be said for potty training your kids in the middle of a restaurant. [More]
dining out
Restaurant Gets Around Foie Gras Ban By “Gifting” It To Customers
By 7.16.12
The list of clever end runs around California’s recent ban on the sale of foie gras continues to grow. First it was the restaurant that claimed exemption from the law because it’s in a national park. Now comes an eatery that says the ban doesn’t stop a business from giving foie gras away to customers. [More]
Am I Supposed To Tip At An Event With An Open Bar?
By 7.9.12
When most people go to a bar, they take care to tip the bartender and/or the wait staff. But for many people, that courtesy seems to go out the window when someone else is picking up the tab, as guests assume that the tip has also been taken care of (or just don’t think about it at all). But are they making the right assumption? [More]
Massachusetts City Considers Ban On Large Sodas At Restaurants
By 6.19.12
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has found an ally in his battle against sugary soft drinks, as the mayor of Cambridge, Mass., announced last night that she’s also considering a ban on large sodas served at the city’s restaurants. [More]
Waiter Kindly Lets Cook Know That He Has A Tendency To F*&k Up The Eggs Benedict
By 6.11.12
Think of all the times you may have complained to restaurant servers that your food was prepared poorly or incorrectly. Then think of all the times in a single day that same server has had to take complaints and re-do orders back to the kitchen. At least one waiter out there decided to put his feelings in writing. [More]
Diner Demands $100 Gift Card To Not Post Negative Yelp Review
By 5.29.12
We’ve written before about companies offering free stuff or discounts in exchange for positive online reviews — or for removing negative comments — but a restaurant in California says a disgruntled diner tried to use the threat of a scathing Yelp review to squeeze a $100 gift card out of the eatery. [More]
What Peeves You Most When You Eat At A Restaurant?
By 5.23.12
Most of the time when you go out to a restaurant, you’re not only paying for food, but also for service and ambiance. So even if the meal was perfectly prepared, there are still plenty of things about which diners feel justified to complain. [More]
Study Claims 1 In 3 Restaurant Servers Discriminate Against Black Customers
By 4.25.12
We’d like to believe that when we go into a restaurant, the waitstaff will treat everyone at the table equally (which may be a good or bad thing, depending on the server), but a new survey claims that more than one-third of servers admit to providing inferior service to African-American customers, and more than half say they’ve seen other servers treating customers poorly based on race. [More]
Culinary Bill Shock: Beware The Secret $275 Truffle Pasta Special!
By 4.9.12
There’s a small, innocuous-looking cafe on Madison Ave that you may find yourself considering on your next meander through New York City. Watch out, says BoingBoing, whose Rob Beschizza wandered into the place on a lark, you’re about to get socked with hidden charges. How bad could it be? Behold: [More]
Statistical Evidence You Should Just Stay Home And Eat In On Valentine's Day
By 1.25.12
Valentine’s Day doesn’t just suck for singles who don’t want to be reminded of their singlehood. It’s also a pain in the tuchus for couples scrambling to find a dinner reservation, sometimes at a restaurant with ridiculously marked-up menu “specials.” Thankfully, statistics have come to the rescue to show that you should really just stay in and avoid the hassle. [More]
How A Bar Still Makes Money By Offering $25 Credit Every Time The Miami Heat Loses
By 12.21.11
Last year, when everyone in Miami was guaranteeing that the star-studded Miami Heat would run rampant over the rest of the NBA, the Whiskey Tango All American Bar & Grill in Hollywood, FL, announced it would pay out $25 credits to every customer in bar on any night the team lost. And in spite of the fact that the Heat managed to 24 regular season games, the bar managed to make enough off the deal to bring it back again for the upcoming strike-shortened season. [More]
Restaurant Cook Decides That Giving Sake To A 2-Year-Old Is A Good Idea
By 11.16.11
We’ve written a number of stories — like this one, or this one, or even this one — about restaurants accidentally serving booze to children. But here’s the tale of a cook at a Japanese restaurant in Ohio who was arrested because he’s alleged to have knowingly squirted some sake into the mouth of a 2-year-old diner. [More]
Survey: We're Eating More Fast Food But Going To Restaurants Less Frequently
By 10.17.11
Personal budgets remain tight, so fewer Americans are dining out at full-service restaurants. But on the speedier side of the food service industry, fast food sales are up, according to new reports. [More]
Are San Francisco Restaurants Actually Pushing To Make 25% The Standard Tip?
By 10.14.11
Earlier this week, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News posted a story claiming that wait staff and high-end restaurants in San Francisco are behind a move to make 25% tips standard across the city. But is this actually true or just hype? [More]
Telling A Diner She Looks Pregnant Is Not A Good Way To Get Tips
By 9.8.11
Here’s a tip for everyone, but especially those in the food service field: Even if you’re pretty certain that a female customer is pregnant, you might want to not mention it, lest you end up stiffed on a tip and the recipient of an angry note. [More]
Ditching Diners Attack Restaurant Owner After She Threatens To Call Police On Them
By 9.6.11
The 69-year-old owner of a restaurant in Michigan found herself in the hospital last week after she called the police on pair of diners who refused to pay for their meals and was kicked in the midsection and hit in the face for her efforts. [More]
Insulting Restaurant Staff On Twitter While You're Still In The Restaurant Might Get You Kicked Out Of Restaurant
By 8.17.11
Think of this as the counter-point to the earlier Twitter-related post. A diner at a Houston restaurant was given the boot after she decided to Tweet her opinion of the staff while she was still at the eatery. [More]
Waitress Gets Revenge On Tough Customers By Skimming Their Credit Cards
By 8.16.11
A waitress at a Port Richey, FL, restaurant was recently arrested for allegedly using a credit card skimmer to steal customers’ information for the purposes of creating bogus cards. But, she tells the police, the customers she cheated were not nice to her anyway. [More]
