lou decruss

If you were really bold you'd have offered to do it at the table. LOL

Lou

sheldon

All restaurants "recycle" *sealed* condiments... if unopened they're
not actually being recycled. I've never seen the sealed condiments on
a table tossed out prior to new patrons being seated. Sealed butter
packets are not tossed either, if still sealed they are no different
from those still in the kitchen. Sealed butter packets are used even
though they cost more but the savings from not having to toss out bulk
butter more than
makes up the cost. Sealed condiment packets of all types more than
make up the waste from serving bulk... and are certainly more sanitary
than those open vats of dressings etc. offered at salad barfs.... I've
seen grown adults actually put more than a cup of ketchup along side
their fries from those gallon pump jugs, only to toss 90% into the
trash.... good for the Heinz share holders! hehe

Sheldon

lou decruss

Most of the time servers push desert to boost the check price for
their tip percentage. This was refreshing.

Lou

lou decruss

It's so sad that now the young people's social life depends on what
they wear and whether they can get their hands on any drugs.

Lou

lou decruss

Were they reused even if they did end up in the dish bins? That's
pretty bad.

Lou

lou decruss

Another horror story. Thank you very much Kevin for making us aware
as to why we should cook for ourselves.

Lou

margaret suran

I do not think so. What thrill is there in taking home a stale roll?

Once upon a time, there was no such a thing as taking your uneaten
food with you when you left a restaurant. There was a lot of wasted
food, but nobody would have thought of asking the waiter to wrap up
the left overs. The expression: Doggie Bag had not been coined yet.
Its origin probably is, that some people would ask for the left over
steak or roast for their real or imaginary dog, so that they could
finish it later on.

In New York City there was one German restaurant (Das Jaegerhaus)
that in the 1960's or 1970's advertised a special Thanksgiving Dinner.
Any party of 4 or more that ordered turkey dinners for every diner
would be served a whole turkey with all the trimmings, as well as
appetizer, salad and dessert. Anything that was not consumed would be
packed up to be taken home. It was a great success, but I do not know
for how many years it was done. That was taking home a doggie bag on
a grand scale.

Later on, when all of a sudden there was much more interest in fine
dining, especially in Italian and French cooking, one of New York's
best restaurant was Lutece. The chef/owner was Andre Soltner, his
pastry chef was a Monsieur Bonte and the New York Times food reviewer
(Craig Claiborne?) gave it four stars, the highest there was.

My husband and I, passed by that restaurant one day as we were ready
for lunch and decided to go in. The meal was quite affordable, a prix
fixe promotion of three courses and it was incredibly delicious.

M. Soltner visited every table, stopped to chat for a minute and made
all his guests feel loved and welcome.

We went back the following week. This time, M. Soltner greeted us as
old time friends and even went into the kitchen to bring us two
samples of dishes we had mentioned the week before.

When our ordered main courses came, we could not finish them. M.
Soltner was still walking around and happened to see that about half
of our food had not been eaten. He came over and asked whether
something had not pleased us. Not at all, we said, but M. Soltner had
given us such large samples, we could not finish everything on our plates.

If we really had no complaint, would we like to take home the left
over food? Both our dishes would not suffer from being re-heated. We
were shocked! The man saw our discomfort and said "What do you
think a chef like me would rather see, the food he cooked end up in
the garbage bin or the satisfied guest taking it home, looking forward
to having it later on". I was no longer embarrassed.

Soon the Maitre D' came and brought one package made of aluminum foil,
shaped like a swan with the long neck the handle and the other one
like a little basket. I looked around. Several other tables were
adorned with similar silver colored baskets and fancy animals.

Perhaps that day the Doggie Bag was not yet born, but it certainly had
already been conceived.

I don't think there's any 'let' involved. They are going to toss the
rolls anyway, so I break em up for birds. If it's something fancy,
like cranberry bread - you bet I take it.

I hate food waste - kills me to see a parent order a 4 year old a
dish the kid won't like, then see 90% of it go to waste. Don't get me
started on the lack of decent kid menus.

If I order something I can't finish and can't take home (traveling),
I'll ask the wait person if there's a deserving cat or dog at home
etc.....usually, they have a plan to pass these tidbits on to some pets
etc.

On the other hand, I have known of buffet restaurants to be put out of
business by baggie-totin' people who filled them right from the buffet.
Heard another person say to waitress, "Now don't forget to give me
lemon and tartar sauce too" for some take home fish she didn't eat. I
wanted to yell over, "Hey don't forget to pack the salt and pepper
shakers, too."

wayne boatwright

Oh pshaw, on Thu 14 Sep 2006 04:45:37p, Margaret Suran meant to say...


Margaret, that reminds me of one Thanksgiving in the 1970s that we stayed
at the Waldorf over the Thanksgiving holiday. We had Thanksgiving dinner
of wild turkey in Peacock Alley. Their custom at the time, for hotel
guests, was to create a lovely platter of foods from the meal, augmented
from additional things from the kitchen, and delivered to one's room. The
platter arrived later, along with several lovely desserts. Several of the
items were wrapped similar to what you described. It was a memoerable and
enjoyable experience.

--
Wayne Boatwright
__________________________________________________

All of this generosity has made me tired! * Cat

dave s

Massive snippage of a wonderful post

Soltner and the urdoggie bag (protodoggie bag)?
.... again, thanks for a wonderful post.

Dave S