Do you clear your table at a pizza place?

amother

Saddlebrown

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:24 pm

Yes, I have worked in the pizza business.

Please clear your table.

Nobody get's paid to clear your garbage.

Please be polite and nice and clear your garbage.

The employees are there to prepare and cook the food not clean the tables!!!

If you feel too entitled to do so then Pizza is to cheap for you anyway Smile

Go to a restaurant not a pizza place. If it's pizza you want then clear your place.

Would you leave a mess on your own dining room or kitchen table?

Pizza stores don't provide maid service!!!!

BH Yom Yom

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:27 pm

amother Tealblue wrote:

I once went away on vacation to a pizza store. I was recovering from a broken leg at the time. My husband went to get the car which was a few blocks away and I stood outside holding the baby. The owner came out and told me to come back inside and clear off the table. He watched me limp back and forth, from the table to the garbage, a few times holding a baby, while he sat with his worker in the back of the store. I was never so humiliated and angry in my life. I toyed with the idea of writing a bad review online but in the end I didn’t want to hurt another Yids parnassah, no matter how wrong he was.
Point is, yes you should try to clean it off but it’s not obligatory! You’re paying for the meal and eating out.

That behavior is awful and absolutely not menschlich. What a jerk. I am so sorry you went through that!

In that type of situation it’s nice if the customer clears whatever they are physically able to, even if that just means putting the used plates etc all on one tray so it’s easier for the restaurant staff to clean up more fully. But to make someone with a broken leg who is holding a baby walk back-and-forth to clear the table? Really mean, not at all customer-service-like, and shows obnoxious middos. I would not want to give my business to someone like that.

Both DH and I clean up after ourselves when we eat in a pizza place or other fast food type restaurant. My instinct is also to clean up on the rare occasion when I eat in a more upscale restaurant that has waiters, etc… few times over the past decade I started collecting the plates out of habit, and then brought them over to a random waiter to ask where I should put them. When the waiter gave me a funny look, I remembered, “oh oops, not how it goes in places like this.” LOL

amother

Cerise

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:32 pm

amother Tealblue wrote:

He was absolutely in the wrong to do that to someone with a baby and a broken leg. Really, you wouldn't have been wrong to tell him to go fly a kite.

amother

NeonGreen

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:36 pm

amother Cerise wrote:

He was absolutely in the wrong to do that to someone with a baby and a broken leg. Really, you wouldn't have been wrong to tell him to go fly a kite.

I’m assuming recovering from a broken leg means no cast or boot or crutches. I’m hoping the guy didn’t know about your situation. If he did see you limping using crutches or wearing a boot he sounds like a huge jerk.

Simple1

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:37 pm

I clear the table, but I see others who don't. I figure I'm not tipping a waiter, so we should clean up. A good food establishment should be prepared for the fact that some will clean up and some won't.

Especially when it's busy and I'm waiting for an empty table, it is very helpful if a freed up table is not a mess.

amother

Brass

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:38 pm

amother Tealblue wrote:

Why did you husband leave without cleaning? Sounds like you guys were not planning on cleaning up after yourselves and you can't blame that on your foot.

If you had gone there by yourself with a baby and were struggling to clean up, the polite thing would be to go to the counter, explain your situation, and politely ask for help. But thay wasn't the case. You went there with your husband, who should have stayed to help you.

I'm wondering if this was a vacation spot that was getting overwhelmed by rude tourists.

gr82no

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 8:45 pm

amother Tealblue wrote:

The owner was wrong, he probably didn't realize your foot was broken and once he asked you and saw you limping he was embarrassed to say forget about it.
Also your husband should have cleared the table before he left to get the car

amother

Seagreen

Tue, Feb 20 2024, 9:43 pm

Well, of course! I don't leave my mess for others to clean up, anywhere. I don't do the staff's work, but I don't leave my trash lying around. I put it in the wastebasket. As a person who once worked as a mikveh cleaning lady, let me just say that I have nothing but the deepest disdain for people who leave their you-know-what for others to clean up when there's a waste bin provided. I don't care if they're the Grand Duchess of Whatever or the CEO of Whatsit, such people are beneath contempt.

amother

Lemonchiffon

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 8:08 am

amother Birch wrote:

No way.

He's got five guys back there sitting on stools, waiting, and you want me to clean up? After paying $30 for a plain pie?

No.

I don't get this "mentschlich" pretense. The staff is paid to do this!!!

Those guys sitting in the back are waiting to take delivery orders. They are not there to clean your trash. It's gross to leave your plates and crusts and cans behind at a pizza place. It's like leaving a public bathroom without flushing.

Bnei Berak 10

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 8:16 am

amother Tealblue wrote:

And there was no way your DH could have cleared the table instead of you?

kenz

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 8:22 am

amother Tealblue wrote:

Why did you listen to him? You should have just said, “I’m so sorry, I can’t” and left it at that. Yes, generally I absolutely feel it’s the mentschlich thing to do, as I stated above, but that doesn’t make it a requirement. Possibly your husband should have done it first but none of us were there to know the specifics and in the end, it’s the store’s responsibility to make sure it’s clean.

amother

Obsidian

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 8:26 am

amother Lemonchiffon wrote:

No it’s not. What an absurd comparison.

watergirl

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 8:30 am

Rule of thumb - if there are trash cans with a place for your trays, and if you have to go to the counter to order and pick up your food or even if you order at a counter and someone brings you your food - trash cans around the dining area = you are expected to bus your own table. If you expect the employee to bus your table, you need to leave a tip.

I worked fast food when I was in high school and a year or two post HS. Nothing makes someone hate people more than bussing a table because people felt entitled to leave their mess for me. At least I was frum (well, growing). When I was a teen and still working on becoming frum, it was very painful when a family of very frum looking people would leave such a mess behind - there were clear trash cans and a sign by every booth telling customers to throw out their stuff when they were done. My job was to clean the table with spray and a rag, not to clear the plates that were supposed to be thrown out by the customer.

For those who say their money covers the cost of their leaving their trash behind - again if there are trash cans, you are expected to clear.

Think about it this way - when you go out to eat at a nice place, you pay the higher bill PLUS tip, right? If you expect someone to clean up after you, you need to leave them a tip.

amother

Purple

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 9:01 am

I live in Monsey and most Pizza stores and fast food stores have a cleaner girl just for this.

She waits for you to finish and then clears the table and wipes, sweeps, mops the spilled ice cream.

I usually collect everything and leave it on the tray.

But when taking my large family I usually leave over a mess from a tipped soda or fallen down ice cream mess Wink

twizzlers1

Wed, Feb 21 2024, 9:01 am

We always clean up at a fast food place. It literally just takes probably less than one minute. They have one person they pay to wipe down the tables and there’s no way he could get his job done if he also had to clean up all the trash first. I’m always surprised when I see people leave their stuff all over the table. I have taught my kids that that’s not what we do and they do it instinctively now. So the woman that had a broken foot and a baby that was not OK how they treated you. There’s always an exception to the rule, and there is a mitzvah of giving the benefit of a I’m sure there is a reason that some people don’t clean off their tables especially when most do it. I’m sure they expect one or two people to leave stuff on the table at most places.