Three Tips for Doggy Bags

Been to a great dinner. Couldn’t eat it all. What to do?
Tip #1: Don’t ask for a Doggy Bag
If the great dinner (lunch, breakfast) is business meal, eat what you can, enjoy what you can eat and then leave the remainder on the plate. When dinner and business connect, food stays in the restaurant. No doggy bag, no fancy swan made of foil, no traveling take out container. Don’t let the last image people have when they think of you be the vision of you be carrying a “doggy bag.” What’s the message there? Doesn’t want to pay for lunch tomorrow? Greedy? Have to get every little bit? Leave the food, manage the image.
Tip #2: The doggy bag stays with the puppy.
If your delicious meal was when you’re alone on a trip, with friends, or family and you want to take it home – great. Enjoy. But don’t let that container travel beyond your kitchen if you’re home, your room if in a hotel. Take out doesn’t travel more than one stop.
No matter how good it is, how much you want to eat that left over lunch with your drink in the bar at your hotel, do not ever be sighted in the hotel lounge having a snack out of your take out container. It’s easier to take the drink to your room than to bring you old food with you.
Tip #3: Away from home.
When traveling outside the United States asking for a Doggy Bag can mark you as One Of Those Americans Who Doesn’t Know Anything. In a Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) article the writer, Stan Sesser, said that in Moscow such a request was greeted with “Are you kidding?” in Tokyo it was “No” and in London, Paris the request was fulfilled but reactions were cool. Look like you belong. Let the souvenir of the dinner be matches or the restaurant’s business card, not the take out container.