Is Frugal Eating Acceptable in Public?
If you read the papers, you would think restaurants are doing back flips with hot towels and warm welcomes to pamper patrons now that everyone is cutting back on a very dispensable indulgence. Maybe I'm reading the wrong papers, because I just came from my second encounter in 17 hours with a server who was, shall we say, less than thrilled with this dollar pincher wanting to share orders. Last night it was pizza with pretensions, today it was cassoulet. So much for half a loaf being better than none.
I know how much I can (and should) eat, so I resent being shaken down to over-order. At 10 o'clock, I wanted no more than one tiny slice, but my consort and our friend were shamed by the snooty server into ordering two (admittedly small) $18 pizzas plus two $9 salads for the table with our bottle of wine. This afternoon I met a new friend for the special $25 cassoulet only because she had proposed splitting one when we made our lunch date. If I braved an entire one alone, I would be, as an Italian friend once said when we ordered osso bucco with risotto milanese in July, still digesting at Christmas. This time we persevered, but it was awkward.
Am I nuts to think a waiter should let me have it my way? When times were great I had no qualms. I always order wine and generally tip 20 percent on the pre-tax tab. And it is, after all, the hospitality business.
By Regina Schrambling
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