$.50 for LETTUCE??!!??!
 

So this afternoon I had a burger craving and went to this pub in my neighborhood, which serves pretty good burgers. I've been going there off and on for over a decade. Nothing fancy, but decent.

I order, and the waiter asks me if I want tomato, lettuce, or mayo on the side. I say just lettuce but nothing else. Anyway, I get my burger, eat, and ask for the check.

On the check, I see I'm being charged an extra 50 cents for lettuce. For fricking LETTUCE. They have never charged me extra for lettuce at this place. They have never charged me extra for lettuce ANYWHERE in the known UNIVERSE.

I pointed this out to the guy and asked, "You're charging extra for lettuce now. Really?" He responded in a kind of desultory tone that they've always done that (not in my experience, and I've been going to the place since before he hit puberty) but he would remove the charge, which he did.

Is this a thing now?

haha i hope not, ive never seen a charge for lettuce, in fact ive never seen a charge for lettuce or tomato. Cheese? sure but not lettuce or tomato.

Never been charged for lettuce. But lots of (non North American) places will put a basket of bread or a dish of peanuts on the table, then if you eat it they'll charge you. Ticks me off when they do this but I ate it so it's not like I can give it back ...

But lettuce has always been free. :)

It's not new, lots of places have been charging for lettuce or tomato, though it should be listed on the menu as an extra charge. With the intense cold snap coming, it's going to be much harder to drive lettuce across the country, so people on the East Coast should be prepared for a price increase or an additional charge for it.

Of course many places over the year that have charged extra or raised their prices when the price of lettuce rose always forgot to bring them back down when the price came down, but that's another story.

Vegetables are getting more expensive now.

that's a new one...taxing people on soda and limited calories...but yet charging for lettuce? Maybe it's an unheard/unwritten burger tax

"Restaurant" (old person cafeteria-style place) here in St. Louis charged $.05 for a pat of butter to go with your roll....my son went up and asked for some butter from the line, they gave him 1 pat and put it on the bill.

My kids never let me forget that every time we drive by the place. We haven't been back.

here in dc, a common charge is $3 or $4 for all the filtered water you wish to drink at dinner. "we filter it here in the restaurant!!""

how about a refund when you say no pickles or something

Weather situations that damage crops can cause this sort of thing. When I worked at Wendy's in college, we had a bad season for tomatoes and had to charge extra for them for about a year.

I have not seen a charge specifically for lettuce, but I have seen a charge for making a burger/sandwich "deluxe", which usually adds lettuce, tomato, etc.

Flying back from SFO right now. At Peet's at the airport, bought two large bottles of water and two coffees -- clearly more than can be carried by hand. Was charged $.15 for a small paper bag. This is actually a city-wide policy in SF now, though SFO is outside of the city.

Went to a Whole Foods in SF yesterday, bought a tea and bottle of vitamins, totaling around $12. Asked for a cup of water to take the vitamins, was told it would be $.10. Asked them to fill my tea cup with cold water, give it to me, and then fill it with tea. Idiocy.

I understand the need to keep freeloaders away, but you'd think a customer already committed to overpaying for some items would be afforded the luxury of a free paper cup.

If airlines now charge for seat assignment and luggage, why can't a restaurant charge for extra condiments? Welcome to the new reality.

There's a restaurant in Chicao that has burger night, where you get your burger for something like a buck. Printed in the small type is information that condiments are an extra $.50 each, meaning that you can quickly equal or surpass the burger's normal price.

dc charges a dime or so for each bag. has reduced the plastic bags in the anacostia river by 90%.

I went to a very nice restaurant on Saturday night and the bill came to $165 for three with no alcohol. I noticed there was a $1 charge as I asked them to leave the cheese off the onion soup and that made it a special order. Shouldn't the price of the cheese cancel out the service charge?

And I applaud DC for it -- it was a great step forward and the river really needed it.

But many stores in SF haven't handed out plastic bags in years, and as of last year they've been completely banned city-wide. These are paper bags I'm talking about, and there haven't been any issues with those washing up in the bay.

the dc law is for all disposable bags. i pay the extra $00.05, as my thunderbird, or md20-20 just does not taste right unless it comes out of a paper bag.

Of course not. Then you'd have to see the label and face the reality of what you're actually drinking :)

I haven't had it in years, but as delicious as it tastes, it left me feeling more than a little...uncomfortable for quite some time.

I have no problem with an extra charge for lettuce or other veggies/condiments as long as it is disclosed in advance, either on the menu (in a reasonable type setting in a reasonable location) or at the very least verbally by the waitperson. I'm a "no surprises, please" kind of guy when it comes to my $$$.

Um, why couldn't you just use the tea? :confused:

It wouldn't even occur to me; I can't take big gulps of scalding hot liquids, certainly not enough to wash down a couple of big pills. Does anyone do this? I'm genuinely curious, as the thought of it makes me cringe. Maybe I'm just weird or have a particularly heat-sensitive mouth :)

Regardless, the issue at hand, as it relates to the thread, is that a cup of tap water seems like a reasonable thing for a paying customer to ask for without charge.

The Up-Sell
 

I'd be cheesed off too. ;) Why not charge extra for well-done beef over rare since it costs more to cook? :D

Our most striking example of this happened awhile back in Cheeseburger in Paradise, a Waikiki tourist trap. Probably most have seen these and other up-sells. What was impressive about this service was the way they just kept coming, one right after the other.

After the waitress removed the plastic souvenir pineapple glasses they sell to people who buy alcoholic drinks (prices unlisted on the menu), the ordering went something like this for the Chicken "Oriental Salad." (sic)

"Do you want avocado on that?" No thank you.

Then it was on to the Cajun Chicken burger, or rather what would be on it...

"Would you like cheese on that?" No thank you.

"Would you like bacon on that?" No thank you. She left disappointed but soon returned.

"Oh, I forgot to ask if you'd like fries or onion rings with that?" No thank you.

Oh, and it was a lousy meal too. What a surprise.

I half-expected an up-sell to a "deluxe condiment assortment" or maybe "cloth napkins."

Lettuce. :D

Not sure if they do a hard sell everywhere but they're actually a national chain. I probably would have told the waitress I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potato, big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer just to see her reaction.

I always wondered what Jimmy Buffett felt about a place named after one of his songs competing with his own chain.

Wikipedia tells me that Buffett's Margaritaville Holdings LLC licensed the name to them. It might be a shrewd business decision to make his own restaurants look really "authentic" in comparison. ;)

Paper bags may not have issues with washing up in water bodies, but they have their own environmental problems, such as deforestation, carbon emissions, and so on.

When San Francisco banned plastic bags in grocery stores several years ago, most stores switched to paper bags, which are not necessarily any better for the environment overall. That is why DC and other cities decided to ban or tax both paper and plastic. San Francisco introduced the paper bag levy last year in order to get people to bring reusable bags rather than just switching to paper.

This has generally been successful; if you go to grocery stores in the LA area, the majority of customers bring reusable bags with them. Of course in an airport environment if anyone needs a bag they will just pay the charge because they are unlikely to bring reusable bags with them.

I prefer full disclosure when there is/are extra charge(s). When we are asked if we want something extra, I ask if there will be an extra charge for the extras. If I see an extra charge on the bill, I ask them to remove it. I DISLIKE when they suggest add-ons that are extra charges.

We may give an appearance of being "cheapskakes" but we would like to make informed choices concerning extras.

We were in Lisbon a few years ago and we got charged for the meat/cheese plate they put on the table. Since the meal was very reasonably priced inside a very large Lisbon mall, a few extra euros for the extra was a very valuable lesson learned. (glad we were not in Rome where they charge more than a few euros for bread!!).

Bottom line: We always ask what extra charges are for the suggested extras. What are the prices of the daily specials the waiter/waitress suggests for our meal. We find they do not mention the prices of the daily specials! The daily specials are much expensive and usually not to our liking!

You are not supposed to drink tea with medication due to potentially dangerous interactions between the active ingredients in tea and the medication.

I actually found out about this recently as I am on a trip to China and having a cold. The cashier at the pharmacy told me not to drink the bottled green tea I had in my hand with the cold medications I purchased.

Some info: http://www.livestrong.com/article/41...on-medication/

This actually does happen kind of often.

I work in the restaurant industry (while going to school) as a waiter. We are encouraged to upsell as much as we can. For example, we charge extra if you want avocado in your burger or on any of the entrees. For a different type of fries we charge an extra 59 cents. So yes, this is common, but really I have never heard of charging for Lettuce before....

They should have just raised the base price of the burger by 50c instead of trying to charge you extra.

That or make it all completly build your own burger, with each topping costing a certain amount. No in between option

You're not supposed to use a NEW paper bag with your T-Bird or Mad Dog! Purveyors of those particular brands of nectar of the gods have been swilling them out of recycled, paper bags for generations.

If not disclosed on the menu nor by the server when making the request, then I would subtract $1 from my tip calculation. I see it as the server's job to warn me of any otherwise hidden charges my order would incur.

So you're saying that if a business charges for one optional service, they have to charge for every single optional service?

Interesting logic, I've never heard of that one before.

Well the logic makes sense if you think of lettuce as a basic part of a burger...which is true for many if not most people.

That in itself is an interesting question: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/dinin...-you-live.html

Interesting question for sure that arises when you travel with children. I got into trouble with a young granddaughter at a McDonalds inside SNA last week when the "plain" kid's burger that I ordered arrived with onions on it. Fortunately Mrs. Fredd was able to scrape them off to the satisfaction of our young 'un. :)

At least they didn't charge extra. ;)

That's ridiculous. In Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, I've seen plenty of places that have switched to in-house "bottled" watter, but none of them charge it.

I've never seen that - but I have seen the "deluxe" thing before.

Right. Same here, but only in fast food.

1) I don't see a place above fast food treating vegetables as condiments.

2) Its a very different thing. Airlines had a lot of things that could be monetized and operate on very low margins. Restaurants operate on higher margins and depend far more on volume.

That's ridiculous. The only thing I can think is that they do a lot of onion soup business and have significant prep work.

This wins for best exchange of the week on FT.

I tend to agree. However, it should be reasonable - sort of like toppings on pizza.

I think the OP, being from Tejas, is thinking of iced tea ;)

Agreed.

Where is this common? I lived in DC until about two years ago and have never come across this at anywhere I've eaten. That sounds just patently ridiculous to me.

I've seen it happen more than once. But the restaurants all had obvious signs saying tomatoes would no longer automatically be included on sandwiches and would be available on request only for a fee. But it really was a tomato shortage as you had a hard time getting them at the grocery store at the same time - and the charges disappeared once tomatoes were more readily available (although some places did leave them as on request items instead of automatic - just without the charge).

Never heard of being charged for lettuce on a burger - for cheese or bacon or onion rings yes but not for any form of veg