The elections are mercifully over and whatever you think of the outcome, you probably agree that people can’t remove all those unsightly campaign signs quickly enough. So one restaurant chain based in South Carolina is offering free food to customers who help clean up the mess left by the democratic process. [More]
restaurants
Chef Who Threatened Yelper Over Negative Review Issues Public Apology
By 11.3.14
We recently brought you the story of a restaurant customer in Cleveland whose one-star Yelp review of a new eatery led to the chef/owner sending the customer angry, threatening messages via Facebook. The Yelper subsequently told us that he’d received a private apology from the chef, but that the restaurant continued to mock him through its social media outlets. After weeks of not directly addressing this story in a public forum, the chef posted an apology late last week. [More]
Master Of Fried Fair Food Opens Restaurant, Will Clog Arteries Year-Round
By 10.27.14
Here at Consumerist, we like to keep our fingers on the feeble, erratic pulse of the latest news in junk food. We like to check in annually on the latest novelty fair foods from Chicken Charlie’s, a vendor at various fairs in southern California and an influential fryer of things. Exciting news from San Diego: Chicken Charlie’s opened a year-round restaurant over the weekend. [More]
More Info From Yelper Who Says He Was Threatened Over Negative Review
By 10.24.14
Earlier today, we told you about the apparent dispute between a Cleveland consumer and the chef/owner of a local restaurant who allegedly reacted to the customer’s negative Yelp review with a series of nasty, threatening messages on Facebook. Now that diner has reached out to Consumerist to share more of his side of the story. [More]
Restaurant Employee Reports Chef To The Police For Spitting In Customer’s Food
By 10.22.14
It’s not always staff versus the customers when it comes to food disputes, which is good to know when someone’s spitting in your food: The chef at a New Jersey restaurant was arrested after another worker called police to report “multiple health violations.” That included an incident when the chef allegedly spat into a customer’s food, after the diner sent it back for extra cooking time. [More]
Want A Dinner Reservation At A Popular Restaurant? Pay Up
By 10.21.14
Earlier this month, we shared with you the news that a delivery-only restaurant in San Francisco added dynamic pricing to its business model: that is, instead of shutting down orders when there is high demand, they simply charge customers more. Similar models are becoming an extra revenue stream for restaurants, removing the risk from reservations and earning them more money when their products are more in demand. [More]
There’s Now A Thing Called Artisanal Ice, It Melts Slower But Costs You More
By 10.21.14
Depending on where you live, you may be hard-pressed to find a cocktail under $10 nowadays. Drink prices have increased over the past several years thanks in part to more creatively crafted drinks and…ice? Yes, you read that right, artisanal ice is real and apparently expensive. [More]
Cafe Banned From Cooking Bacon Because Not Everyone Loves The Smell
By 10.20.14
Many people enjoy the smoky, porky sent of bacon wafting out a kitchen in the morning. But it might not be the scent you want surrounding you while shopping for wedding dresses, which is why one cafe in Australia isn’t allowed to cook the stuff anymore. [More]
Report: Chain Restaurants Have Cut An Average Of 60 Calories From New Menu Items
By 10.8.14
While a calorie count isn’t the full story of a dish’s healthiness, menus around America have nonetheless been trimming calories from their items, according to a new study that looked at restaurant chains in 2012 compared to 2013. On average, new menu items lost 60 calories from one year to the next. [More]
Restaurant Responds To Negative Yelp Review With Role-Playing Exercise
By 10.7.14
When a ticked-off consumer goes on Yelp to unleash a nasty rant about your restaurant, what’s the best way to respond? For one eatery in Kansas City, it was to flip the tables on the Yelper with a bit of dramatic role-playing. [More]
Just What We Needed: Surge Pricing For Food Delivery
By 10.2.14
The ride-sharing app Uber is an immensely popular wherever alternative to taxis wherever it expands. It has one feature that is great for keeping up with demand during busy times, but less great if you’re cost-conscious: prices multiply according to demand for cars. Now a popular restaurant in San Francisco wants to try that idea…with delivery fees. [More]
It’s Rock Star Vs. Restaurant In War Of Words Over Rude Service
By 10.1.14
Was it a case of an entitled rock star who couldn’t handle hearing the word “no,” or was it all about a restaurant doorman who was incredibly rude and may have something against people from the ’90s? Depends on which side you take in the war of words between Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and a Seattle cafe that stopped him and his party at the door. [More]
TGI Friday’s Is Selling Corporate-Owned Restaurants To Franchisees
By 9.29.14
Under its current ownership, Burger King started to do something kind of revolutionary for a company in the fast food restaurant business: it sold most of its corporate-owned restaurants. That move appears to have worked out well for the King, and now other restaurant chains are trying it as well. Will it work for TGI Friday’s? [More]
Chipotle Lacks Diaper Changing Table, Mom Changes Toddler On The Dining Table Instead
By 9.29.14
Chipotle has a kids’ menu with tiny quesadillas and organic milk, and offers high chairs in its dining rooms. They seemed to Chad like an establishment that welcomes and accommodates families with small children. When his wife took their 16-month-old daughter for a diaper change, though, she found no changing table. So she did the logical thing and changed the tot’s dirty diaper on a table in the dining area. Wait, what? [More]
San Francisco Chinese Restaurant Temporarily Closes Because Pleasing Everyone Is A Waste Of Time
By 9.23.14
You just can’t please everyone. And if you try, you’re likely to get frustrated and maybe even lash out at others. That sounds like a situation that unfolded in a San Francisco restaurant recently when the chef-owner abruptly closed the place down. [More]
4 Of 5 Restaurant Twitter Complaints Made Mid-Meal
By 9.22.14
If you’re looking at someone’s Twitter feed and seeing Tweets like “The soup at Joe’s Soup Shack and Hat Store is the worst!” or “I didn’t order a dead fly with my turkey pot pie! #worstdayever” (because you can’t complain on Twitter without a hashtag), chances are that these Tweets were written before the person even left the restaurant about which they are griping. [More]
Investor Asks Olive Garden Servers To Be Stingier With Free Breadsticks
By 9.12.14
For all of its menu updates and attempted image changes over the decades, Olive Garden has never stopped reminding consumers of the free breadsticks they’ll get when they come in for a bite. But one hedge fund says that the O.G. is hurting itself, and its investors, by not paying enough attention to all the bread they put in those baskets. [More]
