The record-union., 1891-03-15
EVERY MAN HIS OWN WAITER.
Lunches Where the Bill is Made Out
by the Man Who Pays 1t.

by the Man Who Pays 1t.
Several lunch-rooms in this city supply
quick service because the patron helps
himself. ALI he has to do is to satisfy
his appetite and thirst at buffets and
then pay his check as he ruSheS out.
This remarkable system is known as
Trusting g-to-a-man's-honesty plan of
quick lunch service" The first restau-
rant Of the kind was started ON Broad
way, near Cortlandt street, several years
ago. 1t succeeded so well that others i'm
itated its methods.
owners trust entirely to mans honesty
to be repaid for what he has eaten. Many
men throughout the lower part of the city
do not have time during their business
hours to take luncheon, especially where
they have to go into restaurant, hang
up their hats and coats, sit down at a
table, and wait to be served, and to these
men the new plan is boon.
When man plunges into one of these
places at noon he makes a dash for one of
the long counters where delicacieS are
plentifully spread. When his eye strikes
some tid-bit that suits his fancy he helps
himself to it, and at the same time orders
a beverage from one of the white-aproned
men standing about. 1t is either coffee,
tea, chocolate or milk, and in less than
ten seconds it is standing before him on
the sideboard, not in dainty cup and
saucer, but in big, plain mug.
There he stands up before the little
space on the counter which, for the time
being, belongs to him, and munches away
at his food with frequent sips from his
mug.
When he gets his first selection down
his throat he walks to another sideboard
and selects some other delicacy.
OF course, there are clerks and cashiers
in each OF the restaurants, but none of
them seem to pay any attention to the
wanderings of a customer. He is free to
go where he pleases and select everything
and anything he likes.
In a little place of this sort in Nassau
street the customer walks to the desk
after he has finished eating, or probably
while chewing his last mouthful, and
says to the cashier:
1.-TWO ham sandwiches, custard and
coffee"
Twenty-Five CENTS" says the cashier,
and the bill is paid
The regular customers, however, know
the prices of all the goods, and walking
to the counter Law down bill and say,
Twenty out'' or thirty out" as the case
may be, or perhaps, the exact change.
In Broadway ylunch-rooms the customer
has to figure out his own bill. To every
price and on the walls are hung placards
giving the prices of all the dishes.
When customer has finished his lunch
he goes up to little rack, takes out a
check from one ofthe rows, throws it on the
cashiers desk, with the amount of money
it calls for and walks out. The correct
ness of the check is never questioned.
The customers word is taken every time.
The men who have put up their cash to
back this system claim that the percent
age of customers who deliberately cheat
the house and get more to eat than they
pay for is so small that it is hardly worth
noticing.
'"This system, I think,u said the man
ager of the Nassau-street room, sis not
new with America. 1t was first intro
duced in Scotland many years ago. Do
lose much from beats? Well, less than
you would suppose. Such meanness
doesn't happen more than two or three
times week, l am sure. / think man
who really is a thief and wanted to cheat
some man out of dinner, would sooner
go into big restaurant; than cheat me.
sometimes man forgets something
that he has eaten and only pays me part
of what is due me. He rarely fails to re-
member this, and only the other day a
man came in and, after paying his check,
told me he owed me 10 cents, which he
had forgotten the day before"
AT the Broadway restaurant the mana
ger said he lost very little by cheating.
''Many times, though" said he, there
are absent-minded men who forget what
they have eaten, and sometimes man
will walk out with his check in his
pocket. He runs across it after time
and will be sure to have it and the
amount the next time he comes in. Once
a very popular man in this city-an ex-
Governor-came up to the counter with
two checks. He said he had carried the
first one for a week. He laughed and
thought it very good joke.
mo, don't lose enough through dis
honesty to make any complaint. We
could easily find out a regular thief any
way. All we would have to do would be
to watch the customers rather closely,
and it would be only the matter of few
days before we found the right man.
Then we would simply exclude him from
the place.-Neao York World.