The dining-out favorite you may no longer see

[Hum]

As eateries attempt to cut costs, restaurant diners may lose a long-relished freebie -- the pre-dinner bread basket.

New Jersey restaurant owner Peter Loria told The Record, "If we can't sell plates because people are filling up on bread, it's a financial burden. We're in the business to sell food, not to sell bread."

So, if there's no bread to whet your appetite, what will?

The Boston Globe reports one restaurant that used to serve cornbread is now going with another southern snack - pickles. The owner says, "Not only are pickles gluten free, but they're soy and nut free, and there's no dairy in them."

As expected, the trend is not going over well with many customers. The Washington Post says one DC restaurant was met with so many complaints about the missing bread that the owner relented and started serving it again.

The Boston Globe says some restaurants are starting to serve potato chips, which are about 5 times cheaper to produce than bread.

source

[FloatingFatMan]

Serve mini pretzels! They're bread, they're -really- salty, they'll make your customers thirsty so you can ream their butts on drinks! :p

[Hum]

Around here, they load you up on rolls, so you have little room for the expensive food bar items. :wacko:

[ctebah]

Offer free bread and salad but ONLY with an entree purchase, and make it very salty. That seems fair.

[Rohdekill]

Offer free bread and salad but ONLY with an entree purchase, and make it very salty. That seems fair.

 

Exactly.  A lot of the restaurants around me, the menu states "bread basket or vegetable plate with entree".  Want to save money, place nothing on the table until you have the order.

[Rippleman]

first time hearing of this. In western Canada restaurants never put bread out, you can order it, but it would never just be bread... would be like cheesy bread and considered an entr?e and pricey.

[DocM]

Bread baskets are the norm here with no sign of disappearing. Many restaurants use fresh mini-loaves as a marketing tool.

[ATLien_0]

Sounds like what Olive Garden went through. It used to be that when you sat down you were greeted with fresh rolls, now you actually have to order something, that way people don't fill up on free bread and leave

[kaborka]

Don't get no bread...

[Kalint]

They better not do this to Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits! 

[_dandy_]

> If we can't sell plates because people are filling up on bread, it's a financial burden.

 

This makes no sense.  If you don't buy a meal at all, you don't get bread, so whether a customer's "filling up on bread" or not isn't relevant, as he's already purchased a meal.  It's not like an individual would've bought *two* meals for himself if it weren't for the bread.  You already have his money at that point.

 

Besides, if you have a buffet, you *would* rather have people fill up on bread rather than multiple servings of whatever it is you have at your buffet.

 

> We're in the business to sell food, not to sell bread

 

Maybe I'm taking this guy too literally, but last time I checked, bread *was* food.  Who is this idiot?  Or maybe he's saying more than he should about the bread he's feeding his customers?

[Hum]

I wonder if this is because of fat ladies ...

[Skin]

Do people really eat the bread then don't buy an entree? That seems odd, or is it that those folks were only planning on eating the free bread anyway.

 

Unless they are complaining that people order 'less filling' meals at a lower cost than the huge plate full of food and heavy meals. Bread isn't that expensive to produce and buy in terms of mover items that accompany the rest of the meal.

 

This owner is an idiot. The price of the bread should already be factored in the cost of the entrees overall. This is double speak and a way to either get rid of costs, or charge folks more in the end. Jersey sucks.

[Skyfrog]

I don't understand why people want to fill up on bread before they get their meal anyway.

[Hum]

I don't understand why people want to fill up on bread before they get their meal anyway.

I wait until the middle or end, depending on what I am eating. :p