Of course Red Lobster has always served Cheddar Bay Biscuits, and Olive Garden breadsticks.
But I can remember when any half decent, aspiring restaurant served a “free” bread basket appetizer. And it’s largely gone, at least in Canada - probably due to costs, the fact people full on bread likely order less, lower carb diets and the ebb and flow of trends.
Are bread baskets still a thing at any non-chain restaurants you like? When was the last time you saw one? Any distinctive items included? Or good stories or memories?
The uneaten rolls in those bread baskets got tossed back into the bin and is re-served. You might as well be sharing the basket with half a dozen other tables that came in and left before you.
At one high-end restaurant here, The Boulevard, they have one or more people, probably bussers trying to become waiters, who walk around with a basket of three types of bread, and tongs, and they offer you more bread whenever your bread plate is empty.
A local Tex-Mex restaurant I go to sometimes serves tortilla chips and salsa as soon as you sit down. Other than that, I can’t say I’ve seen the “free bread” servings anywhere lately.
It always seemed to me that one reason for the bread baskets was to keep the hungry customers from getting too upset if their orders took too long to come out. No idea if that is accurate.
Norma’s Cafe, a six location DFW chain, gives you biscuits and cornbread when you sit down. Both of them are quite good.
And well, just about every Tex-Mex place gives you chips and salsa when you sit down. It doesn’t stop me for gorging myself on the entree. (hey! @CairoCarol is a god dang ninja!).
It is done but it’s also a violation of food safety regulations in most jurisdictions. It’s not done by the chain restaurants or any high end places simply to avoid the consequences of getting caught. Sometimes bread and butter from the table gets re-used in the kitchen as ingredients that will be cooked.
Probably that, and to fill up customers cheaply, so they’re satisfied with the portions when the bill comes (for tipping) and are likely to return. Nothing satisfies Americans more than a good value belly-buster.
We had bread baskets (one round) at a fancy seafood place in Monterey last weekend. Little sourdough buns. They were all eaten, so no one had to stuff the extra (percieved) free stuff (another thing Americans love) into their purse.
Most nicer places around here (SoFL) serve bread baskets regardless of the cuisine. Usually not instantly as you sit down, but after they’ve taken your drink order, the bread in whatever form appears along with the drinks. These are the sorts of places with white table clothes and water goblets, not drinking glasses.
The one “authentic” Mom’n’Pop Mexican place around here promptly brings chips & salsa (and refills of both) right after you’re seated and without asking. The far more common “trendy gourmet” style Mexican places will serve free chips + a smidgen of salsa if you ask, but also have guac, queso, queso fundido, etc., available for a hefty upcharge. SoFL is not known for its Mexican cuisine. The rest of LatAm OTOH; wow, we’ve got that in tremendous variety. Most of those cuisines don’t have a tradition of bread or chips or tortillas on the table as pre-meal noshers. So not expected and not served.
I think it’s mostly the low- to mid-market sit-downs that have killed off the bread baskets. ISTM they started disappearing back in the 1980s and were mostly gone by the 1990s. This isn’t something new.
I’ve still seen bread put out at mid-high end restaurants. What I’ve noticed has largely gone away are the low-end baskets of individually wrapped buns. Say what you will about the fresh bread basket, it still beats looking like you bought your bread at a gas station.
