DSI

Like it or not, unless there's a significant difference in the orders, you'll be judged. Having more friends is better than having a few extra $$ in my opinion.

The_Bouncer

Absolutely. Well said.

SceneStealer7

I avoid Restaurant Week at all costs. Even when I was just out of college and couldn't regularly afford many of the participating restaurants, I would rather save up to go at a "normal" time. For me, even today, a big part of dining out at a nice restaurant is the atmosphere / people watching, and it's not the same when it's packed with people who wouldn't normally eat there.

With regard to the turn in dicussion about splitting the bill, I don't mind if people want to split it according to what we each ate... but it needs to be SIMPLE. If you can't do the math on what you ate + tax + tip and are relying on a calculator/complicated discussions, then we're splitting it evenly. I can certainly do the math myself, but I would find it tacky to announce to the table "Joe you owe $31, Sarah you owe $18," etc.

Giggleswick

Like another poster, I don't recall seeing pineapple sold by weight. Anyway, if I'm either walking or taking a bus home from the grocery store, I'll rip the crown off after the pineapple is rung up and ask the cashier to toss it. It wastes space, which is annoying if you want to carry the minimum number of bags. Come to think of it, I've even occasionally had cashiers ask me if I want them to remove it, so I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't feel like dragging it around.

JayhawkCO

I'm a GM at a restaurant near you, and we're somewhat reluctantly doing restaurant week this year. We don't treat it as a way to make a ton of cash. We are trying to get a little more exposure during those 10 days. Instead of doing boring, crappy food and making a mint doing it, we set our price at the highest limit ($45pp) and we're doing food you won't see at any other restaurant in town.

Chris

SceneStealer7

But is it food you normally make/serve? For me, that's the trick - I'd rather just come at a different time of year and enjoy the full experience rather than something diluted. I would feel differently about RW if it were special food/etc, but to me it's all downside and no upside.

jantaoYVR

Here in Toronto, though our twice annual restaurant week is rather well done, I have tended to avoid it for many of the same reasons you do. Where I have found great value in it, is in testing restaurants during these weeks for planning larger parties, or holiday team meals. These restaurants tend to want to have smaller set menus for these types of parties, and trying a few of them during restaurant weeks tends to mimic these smaller menus and service expectations for larger parties - and more specifically holiday season parties.

schmoove

Whats wrong with shucking your corn in the store? Every store I go to has a trash can by the corn for this purpose.

chgoeditor

Possibly a store where corn is sold by the weight? I've never seen it sold that way, but guess it's possible.

JayhawkCO

Sorry just responding, but I'm at a chef-owned restaurant, so our menu is constantly changing. So, essentially, yes, it is still "our" food.

Chris

theddo

If you judge people because they want to pay for what they ordered, and not what you ordered, I would assume you was the bas one in the group.

DSI

Not sure I understand, but in the vast majority of cases I'm the generous one. And it's not that I judge them, it's that virtually everyone judges "that' person regardless of whether or not they're right in wanting to save a few dollars.

If you make sure to split down to the dollar and still have tons of friends/go out frequently--and they don't talk about you behind your back--then more power to you! They're your friends, not mine.

The_Bouncer

I would say most people would judge someone for nit-picking over 50c or $1, especially if the nit-picker is a professional person on a good salary.

I don't keep track, but I am reasonably generous about buying people drinks and such like. It's what friends do.

darthbimmer

I've always had an "Eh, close enough" threshold in splitting bills, and so have the people I tend to make long term friendships with. That threshold changes with one's finances.

When my friends and I were teenagers, working hourly jobs, our threshold was about 50 cents. If our meals seemed like they cost the same, give or take 50 cents, we'd split the bill evenly. If the difference was a dollar or more, someone would toss in extra. It just wasn't worth it to us to argue down past that level of granularity, even though we observed plenty of adults who'd whip out pocket calculators and argue down to the penny.

Now that I'm significantly better off financially, and most of my friends are too, our threshold is at least $5. Like when I was younger, we figure the difference comes out in the wash; yours is more this time, mine's more expensive some other time. It's not worth arguing over smaller amounts. If someone seems to be routinely taking advantage of others' good will we may not even argue then; we'll just not socialize with them as often.

The_Bouncer

I'm not sure it's necessarily to do with finances. In fact I often find that the reverse is true. Most of my good friends are students or hourly-wagers, and don't care about a fiver here or there. As you say it "comes out in the wash".

Sure, if I obviously drink 5 pints to someone else's one, then I'll throw in an extra €20, and if someone is obviously constantly freeloading, they will quickly find they get fewer invitations.

But we certainly don't work out the cost of each pint vs each slice of cake to the last 10c. No, it's the business people with the BMWs and €80k salaries who do that.