Okay, help me out here y’all. The Husband and I are having a little debate.
When we moved to Southern California last summer, we were faced with the task of finding new favorite restaurants – not chain restaurants, but little Mom & Pop type local eateries. We stumbled upon the. most. amazing. little Mexican restaurant and we have gone there (almost) every Monday night for dinner ever since (kids eat free Mondays and I don’t have to cook or clean up, so it’s a win!).
Inevitably The Husband orders a huge platter that he can barely finish (but always seems to manage it!). The Boy gets a kid’s plate that is barely enough food for his crazy appetite. And I order a combo dish that will be just enough for my dinner with enough left to share with The Boy at the restaurant and a good portion for him to eat the next day. Really I should be the one eating that little kid’s plate! Ha!
So, we always end up with a Styrofoam take-out box for the leftovers. We have to wait for the server to come and ask if we want a box (or two if The Husband cannot finish; heaven forbid the leftovers from more than two people touch. Boys. *sigh*). We have to wait for the server to bring us the box. And then we are stuck tossing that box in the trash the next morning. (And the boxes are always way too big for the amount of food we are taking home!)
I suggested to The Husband last week that we should bring our own reusable food storage containers instead of adding more Styrofoam garbage to the landfills and he was mortified. Absolutely mortified. “Bring our own containers?! To the restaurant?! What if somebody sees them?!”
Jeesh. They’re plastic food containers, not (insert something traumatically embarrassing here; I’m having a hard time thinking of something more traumatically embarrassing than plastic food containers).
So, my question is this: Is it tacky to bring your own “doggy bag” containers to a “nice-ish” restaurant? Have you ever brought your own? Do you hide them under the table when you fill them up?
I asked this question over on my Facebook page and the opinions were definitely mixed! LOL
UPDATE: The head chef/owner came to our table after dinner tonight (we already had our GINORMOUS Styrofoam box packed up with The Boy’s leftovers and she asked us if we wanted a GIANT PLASTIC BAG to carry our STYROFOAM BOX. *sigh* Maybe I should compromise and just wash out the Styrofoam container and bring that back next week?
P.S. – Do you have a “Totally Random Question of the Day” burning up valuable space in your head? Leave it in the comment section below and I’ll get it posted!
photo source
Christa says
I never thought to bring my own. However, I don’t see an issue with it.