Food trucks have soared in popularity for two very simple reasons: They allow entrepreneurial operators a relatively low-cost, small-staff way of launching a business, and they can instantly transform a food desert into a lunchtime hot spot. But are traditional eateries losing customers to this proliferation of meals-on-wheels? [More]
restaurants
Choose Your Own Dining Adventure: Eat A Tasty Burger? Or Keep Jaw Intact?
By 8.21.13
Usually while dining out, the restaurant experience lends itself to a fairly ho-hum set of decisions: Tap water or sparkling? Side salad or potatoes? But then there’s the choice of whether or not to eat a triple-decker burger or keep your jaw in the un-dislocated position. A British woman took the culinary road less traveled and decided to go for it, sans fork and knife, and had to have her jaw reset. Maybe it was all worth it, though — that one bite was “amazing.” [More]
Here’s Why You’re Probably Paying Way Too Much For A Lobster Roll
By 8.19.13
Food prices frequently fall and rise, especially for those foods that come from the ocean. But why, when the price of Maine lobster is currently below that of some chicken and beef, are consumers paying top-dollar for lobster roll sandwiches? [More]
Another Restaurant Hops On Kid-Banning Bandwagon
By 8.6.13
We’ve told you before about restaurants that established bans on screaming youngsters, kids under 6 years of age, and anyone younger than 18. Now a Houston restaurant has decided that after 7 p.m., diners need to be at least eight years old to get in. [More]
Restaurant Drives Away Dumpster-Diving Bear With Spike Strips
By 8.5.13
Vandals kept moving the dumpsters behind a Colorado Springs restaurant and rifling through the trash, so the owners set up surveillance cameras to catch the culprits. The vandals turned out to be a bear pushing the trash containers around and pawing through them. The restaurant decided to drive the bear away using boards spiked with nails. [More]
Bear Is In The Mood For German Food, Walks Off With Restaurant’s Dumpster
By 8.1.13
The German restaurant Edelweiss in Colorado Springs, Colorado isn’t a takeout place, but don’t tell that to the bear who decided that their dumpster made a suitable takeout container. A surveillance camera caught the critter pushing the trash receptacle out of frame. Being a bear, this was about as easy for her as it would be for a human to push around a fully loaded shopping cart. [More]
TGI Fridays Franchisee To Pay $500,000 For Selling Cheap Booze As Top-Shelf Stuff
By 7.31.13
Back in May, New Jersey officials undertook “Operation Swill,” raiding 29 restaurants and bars in the state — including 13 TGI Fridays locations — accusing them of misleading consumers by putting less-expensive liquor in bottles for top-shelf brands. Today, the owner of those Fridays eateries agreed to settle with the state and pay a $500,000 fine. [More]
Food Truck Worker: I Was Fired For Calling Out Customers Who Didn’t Tip On $170 Order
By 7.30.13
While sit-down restaurant diners customarily leave tips, gratuities are much more rare in the to-go food business. But when an eatery goes out of its way to accommodate a customer, it’s not unheard of for that customer to toss a few extra dollars in. So when a food truck worker in Manhattan saw his crew had been left without a tip on a $170 order placed by a multinational shareholder advisory service, he took his frustration to Twitter — and got fired for it. [More]
Sick Of Losing Dinner Reservations To Bots, Engineer Creates A Better Bot Of His Own
By 7.26.13
Like tickets to a Justin Bieber concert, dinner reservations at some restaurants are so desirable that people will go out of their way to insure they get a table. But while many of us just wait until the hype dies down and dine out at eateries where you don’t need a reservation, there is a war waging online to see who can create the better reservation bot to game the system and score seats as they pop up. [More]
Restaurant To Customers: Sorry To Interrupt Dinner, But We’re Closing Forever… Starting Now
By 7.15.13
Customers are surely used to hearing “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” but those customers are usually nursing their 11th beer at bar closing time, not in the middle of an evening meal. Diners at a Charlotte, N.C. restaurant were surprised to hear that not only would they have to leave because the joint was closing for the night — but forever. [More]
Restaurant Workers Claim They Were Fired By Text Message
By 7.15.13
Not having to face someone to deliver difficult news is made all the easier these days with the prevalence of smart devices. Don’t want to go to on that date? Email that you’re sick, cough cough, and no one will know the truth. Or perhaps you don’t want to tell your entire staff face to face that they’re fired — just send a text, a move restaurant workers in Florida say their boss pulled. [More]
The Argument For Abolishing Restaurant Tips
By 7.10.13
As any Consumerist reader knows, tipping is a hot-button topic, with some people arguing that they will only leave a tip when they receive excellent service, while others point out that most tipped employees — especially in restaurants — make well below minimum wage and rely on tips for survival. Then there are those who attempt to make the case that tipping should just be done away with, as it has been in most of the world. [More]
Golden Corral: Food In Dumpster Video Wasn’t Served; Father Of Employee Tried To Sell Video To Company For $5K
By 7.8.13
As we mentioned this morning, a video showing food sitting by the dumpsters of a Golden Corral restaurant in Florida has become an Internet sensation. Now the owners of the Golden Corral franchise featured in the clip are saying that all the food shown in the video was thrown out and the manager involved was fired. The franchise owners also claim that the father of the employee in the video tried to sell the clip to the company before it went public. [More]
Videos: Golden Corral Employee Claims His Bosses Store Food Out By Dumpsters
By 7.8.13
Buffet chain Golden Corral is feeling the heat after this holiday weekend, when a man claiming to be an employee at a GC in Florida posted a YouTube video showing food allegedly being temporarily stored by the dumpsters while the restaurant was undergoing an inspection. [More]
Four Paula Deen Buffets To Close As Caesars Entertainment Cuts Ties With Chef
By 6.26.13
The Paula Deen scandal wagon rolls on, with one of the world’s largest gaming companies parting ways with the celebrity chef on the same day as she made a tearful appearance on NBC’s Today Show. [More]
If An NYC Restaurant Isn’t Showing Its Health Inspection Grade, It Probably Failed
By 6.24.13
Three years ago, New York City began requiring that all of its 24,000+ restaurants post huge letter grades representing their most recent health inspection results, but more than 1,000 eateries that didn’t make the desired A grade are balking at going public with their report card. [More]
Man Ate In Restaurants, Refused To Pay: Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison
By 6.17.13
Authorities don’t know why an Illinois man skipped out on his tabs at two restaurants. Was he broke? Was the food terrible? We don’t know. What we do know is that twice in a period of two months, he ordered a nice meal at a restaurant, then simply told waitstaff that he couldn’t pay and waited for the police to arrive. [More]
We Are Shocked, Simply Shocked That Business Is Booming At Restaurant With “No Kids” Policy
By 6.12.13
There is a sound cherished by many diners, and it’s the sound… of silence. That’s not always easy to achieve at restaurants that cater to all ages, which is why one new sushi joint in Virginia has instituted a “no kids” policy. And apparently, that lack of anyone under the age of 18 is helping the new place do gangbusters business. And honestly, do kids even like sushi? I know I didn’t — it was all squishy and stuff. [More]
