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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Have you been surprised by the “hidden costs” of dining out?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My friend Ben is a natural salesman. He loves to engage any one in conversation. We recently went out to dinner at an upscale Italian restaurant with him and his wife, Nancy. They are the first to admit that they are not gourmands, so they often put their trust in the staff’s hands for recommendations.
We met them at the bar, where Nancy had ordered a glass of wine, asking the bartender to pick something out, basically, that was red. When we moved to the table, Ben asked our waiter, if he had but one meal to eat at the restaurant what it would be.
The waiter quickly named an entree. Ben then looked at him and said, “If that is the most expensive thing, I’m going to be really disappointed in you.” Sure enough when he opened the menu, it was the one item that didn’t even have a price listed - it was clearly an “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” item.
He gave the waiter one more chance and again, he responded with the most expensive meat options. Both Ben and Nancy ordered the spaghetti with tomato sauce.
It wasn’t until we got the check that we realized that the “generic” wine that Nancy continued with after the bar was also the most expensive, at $22 a glass. Who knew!!
If it had just been one or the other incident, we probably wouldn’t have noticed or minded, but instead we came away thinking this place was totally gouging us and we probably won’t go back.
Have you ever been in a restaurant situation where the “special” was more of a “special surprise” when the tab arrived?
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