Newport Food Scene: Dine and dash isn't some prank. It's a crime, and restaurants pay.
When Middletown police arrested a Florida man last Friday for an alleged rash of dine-and-dash crimes at area restaurants, the hospitality community shared a collective virtual high-five.
While it may not have been the crime spree of the century, it certainly was alarming to anyone working in the restaurant industry. Knowing the alleged perpetrator had been caught and he would be facing charges was reassuring.
Dining and dashing, where someone eats or drinks at a restaurant, then takes off without paying the bill, is nothing new. It’s been around probably since the first restaurant opened when someone walked out without paying for their pint of grog and bowl of mutton.
But it’s still a crime that makes anyone in the restaurant industry mad. I’m glad to see this particular man was caught and he’ll be facing the legal consequences. Let’s hope others get the message.
The Dine-and-Dash is a particularly heinous crime for restaurants. While some outside the industry may brush it aside as if the transgression was merely some kind of silly prank or teenage hijinks, dining and dashing is a criminal action that has real consequences for the restaurant.
Not only does the restaurant have to eat the cost of the entire meal, they also lose the revenue that would have been earned by an actual paying guest. Then there’s the loss for the server or bartender. At minimum, the service staff loses the tip from the check.
At worst, depending on the establishment, the server or bartender could be held responsible for the loss and have to pay for the check that walked out the door. Most managers are understanding in these cases, but not everyone.
There’s nothing worse than putting in a full night of work and coming out behind because you had to pay for someone that thought it would be fun to walk off.
There’s also the feeling of violation felt by the staff. When you wait on a table or serve someone at the bar, you create a connection with the guest. You talk to them, you get them what they ask for, you ask them if everything is OK. You build a rapport.
You are doing all this with the understanding the patron will pay for everything when they are done. That’s the social contract of a restaurant. If someone takes off without paying, they’re breaking that contract. Meanwhile, the server is left behind trying to figure out what happened.
There’s no alarm that goes off when someone walks out on a check. It takes a minute to figure out exactly what happened, but when the server realizes, they take it personally. They’ve been duped and cheated. That’s not a good feeling.
To work in a restaurant, you have be good at multi-tasking. You have to be able to take care of one thing while figuring what else needs to happen next. A server can be at one table taking an order, but in their mind, they are running through the list of everything all their tables need.
Table 12 is on appetizers. Table 15 needs another round of drinks. Table 14 is ready to order, but Table 11 needs a check first. You're constantly prioritizing and acting to make sure everyone is happy. When someone walks out on a check, it’s not because a server isn’t paying attention, it’s because the perpetrator waits for a moment when the server is busy and out of sight.
The server is not to blame. They’re just victims of a criminal plot that’s taking advantage of their hard work. The server does what they can to police for anyone looking to skip out, but there’s only so much they can do.
And to be clear, there’s never, ever a legitimate reason to walk out on a check. If you didn’t enjoy your dinner, you can’t leave without paying. If your server took forever to take your payment, you can’t just leave. If you felt you were treated badly, you still have to pay your check.
There are no exceptions. If you are disappointed to the point where you want to leave without paying, ask to talk to the manager or owner. You can discuss your dissatisfaction with them. A good owner or manager will talk it through with you and see what they can do to remedy the situation. You just can’t take it upon yourself to leave without paying.
You’ll be breaking the law.
The man arrested by Middletown police allegedly had walked out on checks at Tito’s Cantina, Fieldstones, Ida’s Restaurant and Caleb & Broad, and he was suspected of doing the same at other restaurants.
It was a social post from Fieldstones that helped spread the news around the community sharing the man’s description and his MO hoping to find him. But this should be a warning for anyone thinking about dining-and-dashing.
The restaurants around town have had enough, and if you do them wrong, they’re handing the matter over to the police. It’s time Dine-and-Dashers paid the price.
Dan Lederer is a Middletown resident with 30 years experience in the food service industry throughout New England. He continues to work locally behind the scenes within the industry and remains a devoted fan of all things restaurant and hospitality related. His column appears on newportri.com and Thursdays in The Daily News. Cheers!
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Dine and dash isn't some prank. It's a crime, and restaurants pay.
