It’s happened.
It has really, truly happened.
We . . . have been validated, people.
I had lunch at Johnny Carino’s last week and asked for a to-go box for my more-than-enough lunch sized portion. The waiter took my plate to fix the box for me (love it when they do that), and brought back this:
That’s right. Though I live under the (vain) assumption that I do NOT, in fact, look like a slob, he made special accommodations for me.
Special accommodations for those who suffer from Slob Vision.
For those unable to recall the contents of an opaque container. Those who (IF they happen to even notice that the container exists) assume it has been there long enough that opening it would be too scary.
Besides, they don’t remember what is in there anyway.
So thank you, Mr. Server Man, for your kind service and attention to detail.
It’s nice to feel like someone cares
I was a server at Olive Garden for almost two years and I *always* did this for people, regardless of whether I thought they were a slob or not. 🙂 (Although come to think of it, I don’t know if I dated it. That’s a fabulous idea.)
I should remember to do it for myself when I bring food home for myself, though.
I”m pretty sure that health codes require all food in a commercial kitchen to be labelled and dated, so the server was probably in the habit of it, but it’s not just the law, it’s a great idea!
That was nice of him. I’ve never scene an eating establishment do this. This is a first!
I’ve been to a few places where the servers do this and I love it. I even took to bringing a pen into the restaurants with me so I can do it myself if the place doesn’t. This attention to detail is so nice!
When I worked at Bahama Breeze, we were REQUIRED to write on every box, date every box, and draw a picture on every box. Yes, draw a picture. On every.single.box. It was great when I only had three boxes, because I could draw about three. Once I had to get to the fourth, I started repeating what had already been done. LOL
Love it when they do this! I’ve grabbed one of my kids’ crayons and written the date on the box before, too. At home, I *try* to date everything that goes in the fridge as leftovers. (Still trying to train my husband to do this…) A dry erase marker kept beside/on top of the fridge works well–if I have to hunt for it, I won’t do it. 🙂
My kids will ask me for a pen, then put their names on the left-over box… so that their brother WILL NOT EAT THEIR LEFTOVER FOOD. Seriously. What’s so bad about taking your brother’s last piece of pizza? Oh, yeah – that would be a disaster, since we only have pizza at least twice a week (including school lunches). 😛
It’s a great idea – I wish I could be so organized as to label everything in my fridge. I have a few “don’t open that – you don’t know when it was put there”s inside right now… 🙁 Yuck…
Wow, that was pretty brilliant of him! I habitually hide my favorite leftovers in the veggie drawer because my husband and kids will never, ever look there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened the drawer up to find a box of ‘mystery substance’ that I’d completely forgotten about… or how many times I’ve made myself gag opening said box to see if its contents were still good. Hope you gave that smart server a nice fat tip for his cleverness!
As a chef, I totally have a majority of the things in my fridge dated. Since we are dealing with three immune-compromised people in the house, it’s very important to avoid avoid such things as food poisoning that might in fact kill one of us. Anything that’s older than a week either gets eaten by my mister (the one with the healthy immune system, though you wouldn’t know it from the cold he had this week), or tossed out. Also, having a designated place in the fridge for leftovers has really helped too. If there’s no place to put new leftovers, then something had better get eaten pronto! We’ve postponed a few bigger/nicer meals in favor of clearing out the fridge, and when we’re looking for lunch inspiration it helps to point the mister toward that section first. As in, he’s learned to start looking there first without any guidance from me! We have significantly reduced our trash-can waste in the last few months, and even our compost-waste is slowing down as we figure out good systems for portion control and food preservation. I’m very pleased with our results.
It’s a little harder to read, but we do this at restaurants just with the blunt end of the silverware.
I think I learned it from my restaurant working husband when we were dating, and I just put a date on it.
Sometimes I even have a pen handy, so I can see it better.