restaurants

(photos: Morton Fox and Danny Ngan)

The Thought Of Dorito-Covered Hot Wings Convinces Buffalo Wild Wings To Switch From Coke To Pepsi

Restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings is ditching Coca-Cola as its soft drink supplier and switching to Pepsi. But what’s most fascinating about this change is how the folks at PepsiCo convinced BWW to jump ship. [More]

(Twitter user @tokai06)

Coffee Prices At This Cafe Vary Depending On How Rude You Are

What began as a bit of fun for the occasionally frustrated workers at a cafe in the French city of Nice is sticking around on the menu, with customers being charged more for coffee if they fail to ask nicely. [More]

Waitress Who Claimed She Got Anti-Gay Receipt No Longer Employed At Restaurant

Waitress Who Claimed She Got Anti-Gay Receipt No Longer Employed At Restaurant

Yet another development in the tale of the New Jersey waitress who recently claimed that she was stiffed out of a tip by diners’ who disapproved of her being a lesbian. Over the weekend, the restaurant at the center of this story announced that the waitress is no longer an employee there. [More]

The Second-Cheapest Bottle Of Wine Has The Highest Mark-Up & Other Restaurant ‘Secrets’

The Second-Cheapest Bottle Of Wine Has The Highest Mark-Up & Other Restaurant ‘Secrets’

Many of us have been there, especially in our early to mid-20s, on a date and being asked to pick a wine. You don’t want to look cheap, so you rule out the least expensive bottle on the list and opt to spend a few dollars more to seem like a dollar-sensitive sophisticate. Restaurant owners are apparently on to our completely predictable ways, and that’s why you probably just paid a lot more for that wine than it’s worth. [More]

Waitress Who Claims She Got Anti-Gay Receipt May Not Have Donated Money As Promised

Waitress Who Claims She Got Anti-Gay Receipt May Not Have Donated Money As Promised

The saga continues for the New Jersey waitress who became Internet-famous when she claimed she’d been stiffed on a tip by diners who voiced disapproval of her sexual orientation on their receipt, an allegation that has subsequently been discredited. Now comes news that the waitress, an ex-Marine, may not have made good on her promise to donate the money she received from supporters to the Wounded Warrior Project. [More]

Olive Garden Will Start Serving Burgers And Fries Because Why Not

Olive Garden Will Start Serving Burgers And Fries Because Why Not

Would you buy a plate of ravioli from McDonald’s? How about the complete reverse of that: a burger from Olive Garden? The freshest idea from the chain eatery is a “Burger Italiano” intended to compete with quick-serve rivals like Chili’s. Will it work? Um, probably not.

[More]

A study shows that putting these helpful hints on receipts convinces customers to make substitutions, but has little impact on total calorie and fat intake.

Restaurant Receipts Now Tell You What You Should Have Eaten Instead

Do you have that one friend who, after hearing what you ordered at a restaurant, always manages to find a way to say something like, “I would have gotten the dressing on the side and saved 100 calories”? Well now you can do away with those so-called friends, because a new generation of restaurant receipts has replaced them. [More]

(Str8upSkills)

Brooklyn Restaurant Proves You Don’t Have To Stay Home With The Cat To Have A Silent Meal

Sometimes all you want is a nice, quiet meal — but perhaps the prospect of spending yet another night ordering in Thai food and staring at your cat is just getting old. Or you want to stare lovingly in the eyes of your significant other without having to talk about what Gerald at the office did today. What if there was another way to silence the chattering, cackling masses that didn’t involve shushing your fellow diners? [More]

Michigan Law Would Ban Selling Of ‘Pints’ Of Beer Containing Fewer Than 16 Ounces

Michigan Law Would Ban Selling Of ‘Pints’ Of Beer Containing Fewer Than 16 Ounces

In some bars and restaurants, the phrase “pint of beer” is not taken literally enough, with some places drastically under-filling the glass or using a smaller glass in the belief that a tall-ish glass is a pint. But a proposed new law in Michigan would make it against the law to advertise a “pint” that contains anything fewer than 16 ounces of liquid. [More]

Google Patents Method For Splitting Restaurant Bill & Other Shared Expenses

Google Patents Method For Splitting Restaurant Bill & Other Shared Expenses

Many of us now have smartphones, and almost all of us know how to use the calculator on these smartphones. Even so, not many of us are pulling out the calculator to itemize restaurant bills at the end of the night. It often ends up with folks splitting things evenly — which can be a hassle if everyone is paying with a card — or one person footing the bill and others promising to settle up, which doesn’t always happen. Google hopes to end this awkwardness with a recently filed patent. [More]

(clagnut)

Restaurant Turns Away Customer In Wheelchair, Charges $245 To Cancel Reservation

Some people may disagree that it’s fair for a restaurant to charge a cancellation fee when someone misses their reservation. However, there’s pretty much no one who thinks that it’s fair to charge a cancellation fee because a customer uses a wheelchair and is literally unable to get in the door.  [More]

How To Make Sure Your Yelp Restaurant Reviews Aren’t Completely Worthless

How To Make Sure Your Yelp Restaurant Reviews Aren’t Completely Worthless

While authorities in New York concern themselves with the legal issues involved with businesses that post fake online reviews on Yelp and other sites, some are asking a more important question: Is there any real worth to crowd-source restaurant reviews? [More]

People Have Been Ranting About Tipping In The NY Times Since 1899

People Have Been Ranting About Tipping In The NY Times Since 1899

While NY Times restaurant critic Pete Wells made headlines last week with his scathing takedown of restaurant tipping, he’s hardly the first person to speak negatively about tipping in the pages of the Gray Lady. In fact, the Times has been down on tips since at least the late 19th Century. [More]

The owner of this recently shuttered Amarillo, TX, restaurant denies ever posting the note seen here.

Restaurant Denies Calling Customers Incestuous Rednecks With Low IQs

A recently closed restaurant in Texas is claiming that it had nothing to do with an angrily worded sign in which area residents are not portrayed flatteringly. But some people believe the eatery is only distancing itself from the sign because an attempt at humor backfired. [More]

(Eva_Deht)

Are These The Final Days Of Automatic 18% Tips At Restaurants?

Many restaurants have a policy of automatically adding a 15-20% tip for large groups of diners, but that practice may be going the way of the dinosaur as a new revision to IRS income tax rules will make such auto-gratuities less attractive to servers and management. [More]

(afagen)

NY Times Restaurant Critic Rips Tipping A New One

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells usually saves his vitriol for eateries that don’t meet his standards, like his infamous 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar. But Wells’ latest target is the even more controversial institution of tipping restaurant servers. [More]

Community Protests Restaurant That Kicked Out Veteran And His Service Dog

Community Protests Restaurant That Kicked Out Veteran And His Service Dog

The owner of a Massachusetts restaurant thought that he knew what service dogs look like, and the terrier in his dining room didn’t fit the profile. “It just looked like a regular mutt,” he told a reporter. Not like the guide dogs for the blind or alert dogs for the deaf that most people picture when they hear the words “service dog.” He threw the dog and his owner out of the restaurant, prompting boycotts and howls of protest. [More]

(Josh Bassett Photography)

Colorado, Florida Residents Really Love “Fast Casual” Restaurants

“Fast casual” is that vague food industry term for eateries that nicer than your typical fast food joint but aren’t really what you would consider sit-down restaurants. They’re the kind of place where you often get lunch at a counter, but the food and service are generally better [Think Chipotle or Panera]. It’s been a growth segment in an industry that’s been somewhat flat in recent years, and according to a new survey, six of the 10 most dense fast casual populations are in either Colorado or Florida. [More]