Leftovers are undignified.
They can be soggy, cold reminiscences of yesterday’s meal. Worse yet is the doggie bag: leftovers unceremoniously carted home from a restaurant, usually in a plastic foam clamshell or aluminum foil container.
But in these penny-pinching times, every bite counts. Which is why, say restaurateurs in the region, a growing number of customers are taking home those last morsels, which in more robust economic times would have gone to a trash bin.
Nor are local pooches likely to enjoy what their masters are taking home, said Charles Kafferman, co-owner of the West Street Grill in Litchfield. “They say they are bringing it home for the dog … but you know they don’t have a dog,” he said.
Call it a sign of the times, said Annika Stensson of the National Restaurant Association. People who would have left uneaten food behind a couple of years ago now take it home to help balance their food budget. “It’s a great way to dine out on a budget, by turning tonight’s dinner into tomorrow’s lunch.”
At the River Restaurant and Pub in Wolcott, owner Karen Milton notices more customers going green. “I’m seeing more salads wrapped than ever before. In the past, people would have just said, ‘I’ll pass on the salad,’ but now they’re taking it home for the next day,” she said.
Even toast, sans butter, gets toted home from Jackie’s Restaurant in Bantam. “They get it dry, so it doesn’t get soggy,” waitress Sarah Owens says.
It’s never been uncommon for regular people to take half of their entrée home, say restaurateurs, but now people in all stations of life are cherishing those extra bites. Even first lady Michelle Obama was photographed leaving a Chicago eatery on Valentine’s Day with a shopping bag that undoubtedly contained leftovers.
“I’ve paid for it, so I always take home what I haven’t eaten,” said Robin O’Rourke of Thomaston, a frequent customer at the Black Rock Tavern and Restaurant, where Porterhouse reigns supreme. “I’m not too proud to ask to have my uneaten steak wrapped for the next day. In today’s economy, who can afford not to?”
Vasilios Koloidis, long associated with Vasi’s, the Spartan and Vintage restaurants in Waterbury, said he has seen an increase in customers taking food home. “I remember my parents would get embarrassed when we took doggie bags home,” he said. “But society and the economy has changed and it’s accepted now.”
He estimates that 50 to 80 percent of his patrons ask for containers for leftovers, and he counts himself in that number.
“I come from an old-fashioned Greek family where if you don’t eat everything on your plate, someone gets upset and asks if you don’t like the food,” he said. “But I’m watching what I eat now and 50 percent of the time, I don’t finish the plate like I used to or I don’t order as much.”
Justin Ermini, executive chef at the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Conn., said his restaurant is geared to smaller portions, leaving less for diners to take home.
“But they might eat the meat from their entrée, say, and save the vegetables or starch to take home for the next day,” Ermini said, adding patrons are also more likely, in this economy, to get two appetizers instead of an entrée — or to share a meal.
So what are take-home meals packaged in these days?
Gone are artful aluminum foil swans. Some restaurants, such as the Mayflower, offer plastic containers that are microwave safe.
Waterbury’s Vintage Restaurant used similar containers when it first opened.
“But then gas prices went through the roof and we had to cut back a little bit,” Kaloidis said. “So now we do foil containers with plastic lids.”
At one point, the West Street Grill considered adding the eatery’s elegant logo to its take out bags, but Kafferman and partner James O’Shea tabled the idea. They take their cue from Madison Avenue, where shoppers are embarrassed to be seen lugging logo-emblazoned shopping bags from Prada or other upscale retailers.
Even with doggie bags, “Understated is where it’s at today,” Kafferman said.
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Information from: Republican-American, http://www.rep-am.com
