Memo to restaurant general managers: Don’t refer to your patrons as “ghetto,” and definitely don’t do so in an email. And if you do have to send that email, make sure your staffer deletes the comment before she forwards it to the person you were describing. A former GM at Ruth’s Chris Steak House demonstrated the lesson by reportedly doing just that, leading to his dismissal. [More]
restaurants
Slash Your Restaurant Bill By Keeping An Eye Out For Upsells
By 1.12.11
If restaurant checks always seem to be a bit higher than you envision, it’s because the industry thrives on ways to trick you into giving up extra cash at every turn. Waiters can be upsell-happy con artists, and you are the mark. [More]
Dine And Dashers On The Rise, Wearing Ties
By 1.12.11
In the last year the NYPD says there was a 20% increase in the number of “chew and screwers” – customers who run up a restaurant or bar tab and then duck out before paying it. And it’s not just the usual “live fast die young crowd,” entire families and guys with Monopoly mustaches are getting in on the action. [More]
Waiter: Parents Of Bratty Kids Should Tip More At Restaurants
By 1.11.11
Taking young children out to eat at a restaurant is an expensive — and sometimes messy — prospect for parents. One waiter also claims it’s actually a costly experience for the restaurant’s staff — and that the parents should be willing to dish out bigger tips to make up for it. [More]
NY Regulates Tipping For First Time
By 1.3.11
The New York Department of Labor has issued rules on what until now has walked a gray line between custom and law: the tip. [More]
Man Sues Restaurant For Not Stopping Him From Eating An Entire Artichoke
By 12.23.10
A doctor has sued the Houston’s restaurant in Miami after he ate a complete artichoke that he ordered, including the spiny and sharp exterior leaves. He subsequently suffered “severe abdominal pain and discomfort,” and a “exploratory laparotomy” showed that the artichoke leaves were jammed in his “small bowel.” His lawsuit claims that he had “never seen nor heard of previously” an artichoke and that it was the restaurant’s fault for not teaching him how to eat it. [More]
Diners Ask Restaurant For 47 Separate Checks… And That's Before They Pulled Out Their Groupons
By 12.20.10
If you’ve ever wondered why you hear stories of restaurant staff doing nasty things to your food before they serve it to you, this might be enlightening. [More]
Is "I'm From Europe" A Good Excuse For Being A Crappy Tipper?
By 12.1.10
About a month ago, we brought you the story of overpriced NYC hotel bars that were adding automatic 18-20% gratuities to tabs, claiming that they had to do so because so many of their patrons were from Europe and other parts of the world where tipping isn’t part of the culture. Now we hear from a waiter who proves they might have a point. [More]
Restaurant Employees: Google Says We're Closed Because We Wouldn't Pay For Ads (Updated)
By 11.22.10
While Ian was visiting Hawaii, he wanted to check out a restaurant a friend had told him about. He looked the place up on Google Maps and was dismayed to find it had closed. When he actually got there, he found the joint was very much open, and talked to employees who alleged Google affixed it with the false label as a way to blacklist the restaurant for refusing to advertise. [More]
Chef Doesn't Quite Appreciate Reviews From Inbred, Jobless, Bored Yelp Users
By 11.10.10
Some people don’t like to be criticized, especially when the criticism comes from amateurs and when said criticism can have an impact on their income. Just ask the chef at a restaurant in Denver who has kicked up a crap storm after unleashing his true feelings about Yelp.com reviewers. [More]
Customer Forgets Doggie Bag, Demands Gift Certificate
By 11.5.10
If you left a busy restaurant without your doggie bag, what would you do? (A) Shrug and think about the delicious lunch of leftovers that will never be? (B) Go back to the restaurant to see if it was still there? Or would it be (C) Call the restaurant and demand a gift certificate in compensation? A customer of a Boston restaurant attempted option (C) recently, and the restaurant took to social media to share their… surprise? confusion? [More]
Slime Slops Into Sodas, Manager Too Busy To Clean Ice Machine
By 11.5.10
Reader Nora works at a restaurant where the new manager is too busy to mitigate the black slime growing in the ice machine, even though sometimes it plops into people’s drinks. At left is a picture she took with her cellphone of the mold colony. [More]
Should The Guy Always Pay On The First Date?
By 10.29.10
It’s nearly the weekend, which means at least some of you will be going out on dates, a handful of which will be first date. And in spite of all talk of gender equality, many people still think it’s the man’s job to foot the bill. [More]
63% Of Restaurant Workers Admit To Serving While Sick
By 10.15.10
Waiter! There’s a phlegm in my soup! And it’s yours! 63% of restaurant workers in a new survey said they had cooked and served food while sick, putting consumers at risk, and also being just gross. [More]
Celeb Chef Mario Batali Sued Over Tips By Staff At Yet Another Restaurant
By 10.13.10
Back in July, pony-tailed celeb chef Mario Batali found himself the subject of a lawsuit filed by workers at five of his NYC area restaurants for allegedly withholding credit card tips from the staff. Absent from that litigation were employees at Batali’s flagship eatery Del Posto… until yesterday when 27 members of that restaurant’s staff sued, claiming they weren’t paid a legal wage. [More]
Chicago Restaurant Owes $118K In Overdraft Fees, May Have To Close
By 10.8.10
If you’ve felt the burn of a $35 overdraft charge, just be thankful you’re not Chicago’s Heartland Cafe, which has had to shell out $118,000 in cascading overdraft charges. [More]
Would Your Home Kitchen Pass A Health Department Inspection?
By 9.30.10
You might be reticent to eat in a restaurant that has done poorly on a recent health inspection, but be honest with yourself: would your kitchen pass the same kind of inspection? A writer for the New York Times wondered this, and invited a real live city inspector to examine his own home kitchen. He did not do well. [More]
