# Horrible Practices You've Witnessed Behind the Scenes in Restaurants **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940 "2012-04-25T18:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/81 "2012-05-02T01:33:50Z")
Yeah, I got that the first time. I think we’re having two different conversations. \*\*adhemar \*\*posted that he’s got a restaurant nearby that boasts they never change the oil they use to deep fry burgers. Unless it’s the same restaurant, I was just a little bit doubtful about the deep frying burgers part. I know it exists, and I get that the linked restaurant does this. Maybe it is the same restaurant. It’s uncommon enough. That’s all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/82 "2012-05-02T01:40:31Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I know a pizza place that runs their stinking, filthy mop heads through the dishwasher. I’m sure the context is important here, but I’ve done the same many times and am not seeing the issue. Working in both small-scale restaurants and large-scale cafeterias, my experience is that it’s not uncommon to run mop heads through at the end of the night before the machine is purged and cleaned. Of course, the places I worked purged/cleaned the dishwasher daily. > [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > The same guy also felt it was completely appropriate to test the doneness of the steaks by poking them. Without cleaning his hands before or after. He would handle food, then poke one of the steaks I was cooking, then go back to plating the food. I cooked steak and burgers by touch, but they were my steaks and burgers, and my touch. I also washed my hands damned near compulsively while on the grill. If someone else had touched my burgers while cooking, I would have killed her. Once in a small-town restaurant where I was second cook the manager was filling in for first cook (it was that small of a place—there were two second shift cooks and both were out for whatever reason). Of course, that afternoon someone orders an entrée we never serve (pork chops). After timing, cooking, and plating every other piece of the order, my manager catches a plate corner and spills the chops onto the no-slip mat. She looks at me in disbelief, mutters something about not saying anything, washes off the chops before throwing them on the grill for a few seconds, and serves them. It’s the only example of questionable food-service actions I saw in more than eight years of food service. Which may be why I’m (too) trusting of restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/83 "2012-05-02T01:49:23Z")
> [@azraiel](#): > > I’m sure the context is important here, but I’ve done the same many times and am not seeing the issue. Working in both small-scale restaurants and large-scale cafeterias, my experience is that it’s not uncommon to run mop heads through at the end of the night before the machine is purged and cleaned. Of course, the places I worked purged/cleaned the dishwasher daily. During serving hours, just before and/or after a load of dishes ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/84 "2012-05-02T01:51:23Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Yeah, I got that the first time. I think we’re having two different conversations. \*\*adhemar \*\*posted that he’s got a restaurant nearby that boasts they never change the oil they use to deep fry burgers. Unless it’s the same restaurant, I was just a little bit doubtful about the deep frying burgers part. I know it exists, and I get that the linked restaurant does this. Maybe it is the same restaurant. It’s uncommon enough. That’s all I’m saying. It is the same place, the opened a new location in Bartlett TN and took part of the vat tothe new location with police escort. It might not be common anymore but apparently it was quite common here and I have been told it was derived from a slug burger, that was quite popular around these parts. I remember reading an article about the lackof slug burgers any more except for Dyers. I think the name might have something to do with it. [Slugburger - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugburger) ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/85 "2012-05-02T01:59:41Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Yeah, I got that the first time. I think we’re having two different conversations. \*\*adhemar \*\*posted that he’s got a restaurant nearby that boasts they never change the oil they use to deep fry burgers. Unless it’s the same restaurant, I was just a little bit doubtful about the deep frying burgers part. I know it exists, and I get that the linked restaurant does this. Maybe it is the same restaurant. It’s uncommon enough. That’s all I’m saying. the Dyers website doesnt specify that they are deep fried just that it is the same grease so I see where your confusion came from. They are deep fried in a vat of grease not pan fried in a small amount of grease. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/86 "2012-05-02T02:44:42Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I’m not doubting the old grease. I’m doubting deep frying a burger – because it is fairly uncommon. You doubt deep frying a burger? I have a friend who deep fries bacon for breakfast! ---
**Author:** ![SticksAndString](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@SticksAndString](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SticksAndString)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/87 "2012-05-02T03:01:44Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I’m pretty sure everyone’s allergic to Smilex, at least a little. I don’t remember if that was the specific brand, but I was more than just “a little allergic”. My hands swelled until they looked like balloons and the skin on my hands was cracked, red and itchy as hell. It took several days of being at home and washing my hands as little as humanly possible as well as multiple doses of Benadryl for them to go back to normal. The boss blamed it on the fact that I actually took the corporate handwashing policy _seriously_.:smack:Because even though I wasn’t on the line cooking burgers and whatnot, I was still making drinks and getting soda spilled on me from that as well as handling raw fruit (bananas, mostly) for banana splits and making milkshakes. I’d worked in food service for a long time and even if nobody else was serious about cleanliness, I was. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/88 "2012-05-02T03:02:26Z")
Two words from my past: “chicken hockey.” ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/89 "2012-05-02T14:05:24Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Two words from my past: “chicken hockey.” I remembered a common refrain from the first deli I worked at. “Just mark it so WE don’t eat it.” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/90 "2012-05-02T15:22:55Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I’m trying and failing to find it, but I swear I read somewhere of a custom in … some Asian village, can’t recall details … of chicken broth being cooked this way in restaurants or inns or something, too, and much like sourdough starter is more prized the older it gets. I believe it’s quite common in the Carribean - pepperpot stew, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/91 "2012-05-02T16:06:13Z")
I was a pizza maker for a local chain. We had tours of kids from kindergarten come through and we would make a pizza together. Since I didn’t know where the kids hands had been I would throw out the pizza that we made after they left. One day when the kids were trying to spin the dough it fell on the floor and we proceeded to make the rest of the pizza, since I knew we were going to throw it out anyway. After the kids went to sit in the restaurant the teacher asked if I was going to keep the pizza, I told her I would be throwing it away. I never told the kids, though, so I can imagine the stories that they went home with. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/92 "2012-05-02T16:46:43Z")
Two items: 1. years back, I managed a small bar/restaurant at a marina. The place had a tank in which live lobsters were kept. One day, some idiot discarded some oil from his bilge-the oil entered the tank and killed the lobsters. I called the owner and told him-he said-cook the lobsters and make lobster salad. I said NO WAY- I dumped them and bought new ones-that fool could have killed people! 2. About 10 years ago, my wife and I were in South Beach, Miami. We asked the clerk at the hotel desk for a good Italian restaurant-he told us about a trendy place-he had all praise for it. We went walking by-and noticed the kitchen door open to the street-what I saw made me gag-they had plates with pasta/sauce on a wire rack, sitting out at a nice balmy 90F! The sauce was covered with scum-it was already moldy! We would up eating at a good Cuban place-that memory has never left me.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/93 "2012-05-02T17:08:32Z")
Well, I was in need of some quick cash my first year out of uni, and I foolishly followed the advice of Twink’s friend Lynchie (see, right there I should’ve stopped, and gone and gotten friends named Tom and Bob). Lynchie worked at a slow food reataurant. It was supposed to be faster food, but Lynchie’s mom owned the place… …and was such a micromanager that SHE had to supervise everything. People would come in, order drinks, and wait. Maybe fifteen minutes. Because “Mama” was getting the ingredients out, and peering at each step of the process. And making the bartender start over for any imagined infraction. Another fifteen minutes and the rolls and salads might be ready… because she had to rearrange everything. And the really weird part? The customers never saw Mama… she was pathologically shy, and would stay behind a curtain that adjoined the wait station. But they sure could hear her hissing-- you’d be agreeing to get a customer a glass of Coke, and _every_one would hear a _“Ssssss!”_ from the darkened corner. You’d have to peek behind the curtain, just so you could be informed “Ask them if they want ice in their Coke.” It creeped out the customers, and me. I started having dreams of Mama making me redo things from her hideaway. Finally, on what turned out to be my last night, a child spilled a pop in her lap, and there was the dreaded sound, like a snake about to strike from the dark: _“Sssssss!”_ She made me stop and refold the napkin on the way to give it to the kid’s father. So that’s whay I’m no longer working at _Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?_ > [@Sampiro](#): > > A friend and my cousin both worked at the same branch of a major theme restaurant whose name is not Jumpin’ Jack Flash but is from a song by the same group. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/94 "2012-05-02T19:50:15Z")
I’ve never worked in a restaurant. Thanks goodness! But here are my movie theater stories. At the first place I worked we didn’t have a popcorn popper. We ordered “prepop” which arrived in giant bags which were stored upstairs from the auditoriums, then placed in our heater behind the candy counter for serving. I overheard one of the ushers, whose job it was to bring down the bags of prepop, speaking with the manager by telephone. They were discussing the presence of rats, rat excrement in the popcorn bags, and the usher asked how to handle the bags that had holes in them but no evidence of rat poop. \ At another theater, where fortunately I’d moved on already but my best friend worked, she caught the manager scouring the auditoriums after hours & reclaiming cups to be reused. You see, inventory for fountain soda & bulk popcorn was managed by counting the cups. Reuse a cup & the manager pockets the money. From that moment on I always insist on seeing MY cup coming out of the plastic sleeve. Ugh! ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/95 "2012-05-03T06:43:19Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > During serving hours, just before and/or after a load of dishes _urp_ Yeah, that’s nasty. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/96 "2012-05-03T07:49:51Z")
> [@kath94](#): > > I’ve never worked in a restaurant. Thanks goodness! But here are my movie theater stories. > > At the first place I worked we didn’t have a popcorn popper. We ordered “prepop” which arrived in giant bags which were stored upstairs from the auditoriums, then placed in our heater behind the candy counter for serving. I overheard one of the ushers, whose job it was to bring down the bags of prepop, speaking with the manager by telephone. They were discussing the presence of rats, rat excrement in the popcorn bags, and the usher asked how to handle the bags that had holes in them but no evidence of rat poop. \ > > At another theater, where fortunately I’d moved on already but my best friend worked, she caught the manager scouring the auditoriums after hours & reclaiming cups to be reused. You see, inventory for fountain soda & bulk popcorn was managed by counting the cups. Reuse a cup & the manager pockets the money. From that moment on I always insist on seeing MY cup coming out of the plastic sleeve. Ugh! Speaking of managers running scams, I went to high school with a guy who became a manager at a KFC. He would man the register and ring up orders as less than what the customer ordered, but he’d use a calculator to charge them the correct price for what they ordered, and he’d pocket the difference. So if you order a total of $19.67, he’d only punch in $8, charge you the full $19.67, and serve you everything you ordered while keeping a tally to pocket the difference later. He’d play it off to the customer that the register was acting up. This was back when far fewer people used bank cards. Man, their inventory must have been way off. I have no idea how long he ran that scam. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/97 "2012-05-03T08:06:05Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I’ve always suspected that about grocery store garlic bread. It always looks great, but it never tastes like much of anything. Dunno if it is common in the USA but here a lot of chain grocery stores sell pre-seasoned raw fish and chicken along with the regular plain one…yep I suspected it and had it confirmed by my wife’s friend who works in one. The pre-seasoned is the plain chicken and fish that didn’t sell and was close to turning. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/98 "2012-05-03T11:42:13Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Dunno if it is common in the USA but here a lot of chain grocery stores sell pre-seasoned raw fish and chicken along with the regular plain one…yep I suspected it and had it confirmed by my wife’s friend who works in one. The pre-seasoned is the plain chicken and fish that didn’t sell and was close to turning. I know stores are supposed to rotate stock for freshness and all that. I suspect that my favorite supermarket does the same with fruit. I’ve got a bowl of fruit salad that I bought yesterday that I have to eat quickly. Fortunately, the sprog likes fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/99 "2012-05-03T15:29:45Z")
> [@grude](#): > > The pre-seasoned is the plain chicken and fish that didn’t sell and was close to turning. I think it’s more accurate to say that it is approaching its sell-by date- and that isn’t particularly disturbing. (at least if we are describing the way it is commonly done here.) When you buy meat, there is generally an expectation that you may store it in the fridge for a few days, because you are shopping for the week. When you buy crusted salmon, chicken cordon blu, or some other pre-seasoned meat, it’s because it’s a convenient quick option- it’s not going to linger in the fridge for as long. The “sell by” dates on the package reflect this expectation. Why would you waste meat that may last a week for this purpose? ---
**Author:** ![thevmax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@thevmax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thevmax)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940/100 "2012-05-03T15:47:50Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Since most (although not all) of the high-end, boutique vodka producers buy their alcohol in bulk from Archer Daniels Midland and then maybe filter it and add some water and flavoring (for flavored vodkas), the customers probably weren’t getting anything different from what they’d actually ordered. Still, it’s a rip-off. If someone wants to waste his money on what is essentially diluted Everclear, they should be permitted to do so. HOWEVER…it’s not right for the customer to pay a premium price for EverClear when they have ordered Grey Goose! :mad: If you have tasted premium liquor and, god forbid, rail hootch, you know the difference. I can easily tell Seagrams Crown Royal from rail brand, and I am willing to pay the difference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horrible-practices-youve-witnessed-behind-the-scenes-in-restaurants/619940.md?page=6)