Cup of Joe / July 2012 / The eating out phenomenon

Jul 25, 201210:11 AMCup of Joe

Your weekly dose of strange parenting news, trends, and polls

The eating out phenomenon

Why is it that we enjoy eating out so much? In my case, it’s avoiding doing the dishes—apparently I don’t do them often enough. I try to make the argument to my wife that I’m busy, but she usually has an enormous list of things she’s done during the week that sends me scampering towards a Brillo pad with my tail between my legs.

Regardless of the reason, more families are eating out now than ever before. A recent Rutgers Study found that families spend an average of 40 percent of their budget on dining out.

With families eating out that often, interesting trends are bound to surface. Here are a few of the odd occurrences I often encounter while eating out:

1)      You call ahead a few hours before going out to eat and your reservation mysteriously never makes it on the list. I can’t count the number of times this has happened to me. The hostess gives you a blank stare and does a double-take of the guest list, and there’s always someone with the same first name 5 minutes before or after your reservation.

2)      The waiter or waitress asks you how everything is, just as you put a giant wad of chow in your mouth. There might just be an unspoken rule among servers that they can only ask how your food tastes while you’re chomping on something. I used to try and muster out a small “great,” but have since transitioned to the thumbs up sign.

3)      A mysterious authoritative figure stops by your table to ask if you enjoyed your meal. This is a relatively new phenomenon. It seems that many local restaurants have adopted the policy of having their manager—or maybe it’s the head chef or it could just be some guy in khakis and a polo—ask guests about their experience. This would be fine, except that they never tell you who the heck they are.

4)      Somebody forgets to take their leftovers along. Who hasn’t asked for a box for their food and then left it at the restaurant? I’ve even made it out to the car with my leftovers and drove away with them on the roof.

What odd occurrences have you experienced while eating out? Share your answer in our comments section below.