Is the Doggy Bag Dead?
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We recently spotted an interesting New York Times story that wondered, “Is the doggy bag dead?” [gift link]. If you're a NYT reader, you may have noticed their trend stories often exaggerate the extent to which something is actually a trend, but since we haven't talked about this issue for a LONG time, we thought it'd be a great discussion.
Several years ago in that post, we answered a reader question about whether or not it's a good idea to take leftovers home from a business lunch. Kat cautioned that it's typically a bad idea, and most of the commenters agreed.
Do you usually take home leftovers from work lunches or dinners? What about with family and friends?
{related: what not to order at a business lunch}
Personally, I don't like leaving leftover food. I don't want to waste it, for one, and also, who doesn't love to eat leftovers when you don't feel like cooking? It bothers me that when I'm on vacation, or simply won't be home for hours, I have to say no to a doggy bag because I don't have access to a fridge. (I have a tendency toward people pleasing — I've been working on it! — so I often explain this to the server, who probably does not care.)
Anyway, here's one startling fact from the story: According to 2023 data, the average American leaves behind 53 pounds of restaurant food a year.
Here's what NYC restaurant owners (and others) shared with the reporter as reasons many diners say no to leftovers, some of them surprising:
- “social stigmas”
- a return to sharing food at a restaurant post-pandemic
- a principle against eating leftovers
- Gen Z's love of delivery food — who needs leftovers when you can easily get more food delivered anytime (eek)?
- the awkwardness (hmm) of taking home leftovers when you're on a date (rather than with your family)
- the inconvenience of taking food home on public transit, and/or when you have post-meal plans
{related: our best tips for business dining etiquette}
Readers, let us know: Do you usually take a doggy bag home? (Does anyone really call it a doggy bag anymore anyway?) Does it depend on the type of food, the situation, the company, or something else? Have you noticed friends or family members bringing leftovers home less often than in the past?
absolutely not dead! With the rise in restaurant prices, asking for a box (agreed, ‘doggy bag’ as a term is out) is super common. Meeting for a casual lunch during the workweek? Often people will eat half the huge restaurant sandwich and save the other half.
On a dinner date, we usually have a small cooler bag anyway to BYOB (yay Philly), and so we stick a few small containers in so that we don’t accumulate wasteful (and often cheap and therefore leaky) restaurant plastic bins.
I still probably wouldn’t ask for a box at a more formal work meal like an interview lunch, but that’s about it.
servings are enormous so unless you are getting one meal for your whole family you are either overeating or wasting food. Yes! I bring home basically half of my meal all the time. I guess I wouldn’t do it on a first date or at a work function but otherwise? totally and would never occur to me to be embarrassed.
As a non American every single time I go to the US I have an ‘oh right their meals are effing massive’ moment when I accidentally order enough food for a football team.
Every time I spent time in the US I found doggybags to be such an excellent idea and I wish we did the same in my country
I wouldn’t do it at a work meal – it’s definitely an image thing and might be particular to my industry… but in my personal life I not only take leftovers, I come with a metal bento tin in my backpack so I don’t have to ask the server or acquire a plastic box!
i never thought of this, do restaurants seem to mind?
We do this all the time, whenever we’re done eating we just quietly move the extra portion to our containers. A lot of places would just bring you a box to scoop your own food anyway!
I would not ask or expect a restaurant to take a customer’s container back to the kitchen for food safety reasons.
I’ve also done this, and usually the staff is busy and it’s not an issue.
Even my heiress roommate from college 30 years ago does this.
I’ve never had someone mind, and once a server was so delighted to see me saving the food that she thanked me and brought me a little extra portion of garlic bread to tuck in next to my leftover pasta.
I also bring the bento for takeaway at markets and food trucks and have once or twice been given extra food or treats in response.
In a related thought, do you all support some businesses more than others that try to lessen their wastes? That is, donate extra kitchen surplus to certain charities?
If so, how do you learn which ones do this?
Honestly not really. Donating food is really complicated and I know businesses that have stopped doing it for reasons (though sometimes they’ve taken other approaches like pay what you can). I do try to support businesses that do right by their own staff and avoid ones with bad reputations.
The only local restaurant I know of that donates to charities is obnoxiously performative about it, and it’s so clearly first and foremost an effort for free advertising that I actively avoid that place. The local TV stations do segments where they film them donating things like leftover oysters to an after school food pantry. Like, what on earth is an after school food pantry going to do with a hundred leftover oysters suddenly dropped at their door??? They can’t exactly hand them out with the pudding cups and apples to 3rd graders who are doing homework while waiting for their parents to pick them up.
I’m midcareer and will take leftovers when dining with those around my level, or sometimes with those higher (e.g., just my boss) but not a more public facing setting (e.g., multiple higher level leaders and/or at a bigger dinner). I also am a slower eater who prefers to eat smaller servings more frequently, and so at networking or social events, I feel like I either box up half my lunch or end up grazing longer than everyone else (which would also be a faux pas).
I acknowledge it may be weird if you’re (1) eating with lots of higher ranking people or in a more formal setting, and no one else is asking for their leftovers to go home, or (2) order a lot so it looks like you’re ordering so you have dinner for later.
Summer associates, only ask for a box if your attorney hosts do first, but outside of that setting, I wouldn’t overthink it.
I’d also add for summer associates, only box up your own food. Don’t ask for half the sandwich on the other attorney’s plate that they were going to let go.
Oh god did someone really do that??
that is kind of gross
When I have work lunches or dinners it’s usually during travel, so I don’t have access to a fridge and can’t take leftovers. But otherwise, I’m senior enough that I’m not concerned about it looking any particular way and would do the same thing that I do at home, which is take home lunch leftovers but probably not dinner. It’s just a function of how I tend to order at dinner (small plates so there aren’t really any large quantities to take home) v. lunch (getting a big sandwich that will be more than enough for two lunches).
Never for work meals. Ever. This is one of those class markers that will completely give you away to the wrong people.
I don’t disagree with you, but I’m a strong believer in being who you are (take the leftovers, whatever) and make people deal with the real you instead of the pretend you.
Agreed, the goal of a networking dinner is to come off as professional and polished. No one looks polished carrying around a paper bag containing a box of food. Most women already have one bag to carry, juggling multiple bags does not look put together.
so interesting. Is there not a widespread understanding that in order to find capable staff and meet business needs, you need to broaden the pool beyond the dominant demographics? Or is being not working class a predictor for better performance in your line of work?
I don’t read the OP of this reply as saying the attitude is correct, but something to be mindful of as an unspoken practice. If you’re the one trying to impress in the situation, better to know the rules… even if they s-ck.
Yeah, I’m giving this warning because I want a more diverse group of people in business! Don’t get tripped on the unspoken rules!
That came across (that you don’t condone it but are flagging it). I am just (naively) thinking that eventually we must all have figured out how detrimental that gatekeeping is to the business, and that ought to percolate into the levels of influence…
Yeah, I think this is completely backwards. To me, leaving a meal’s worth of food on the table just to prove that you can signals striver/nouveau riche. The HNW people I know are glad to have the rest of a delicious meal for lunch the next day.
I don’t agree. This isn’t about virtue.
it depends on the circumstance. I was at an executive off site in NYC recently (everyone there was VP+) and a vendor hosted a dinner at a swanky surf and turf place. There was an insane amount of food left over, and most of us were from out of town. We absolutely encouraged the locals to take the leftover steak, shrimp, etc home to their families. It’s silly to waste a filet mignon!
I wonder if intuitive eating contributes to this. Rather than eating, eg, half of your meal with the goal of saving the other half, or cleaning your plate to clean your plate, you eat what your body needs. That often results in an awkward amount of food left behind – not enough for a meal or even a snack, but too much to finish without overeating.
I posted above, but this is why I almost never take food home from dinner – I’ll usually have some leftovers but amounts that won’t really be useful for a future meal. But I naturally prefer smaller lunches, so then I do typically end up with enough for a future second lunch because of large restaurant sandwiches, etc.
Yeah, sometimes I can crack an egg over it and call it breakfast. Otherwise it’s a late night snack I don’t need.
I’m the Anon who posted this. “Late night snack that I didn’t need” is exactly it.
I think it was Senior Attorney who said that food can go to waste or go to waist. Helpful way of thinking about it.
She’s been less active! I wonder if she’s on one of those trips she referenced a few months ago.
she posted this week I’m pretty sure.
Greetings from Adelaide in beautiful South Australia! I’ve been mostly reading but time zones don’t really facilitate posting!
These are fascinating answers that are giving me insight into other industries. I’m in a crunchy profession and we wouldn’t bat an eye. We might even declare we’re taking the leftovers home as a way to virtue signal that we’re low waste!
Every time I spent time in the US I found doggybags to be such an excellent idea and I wish we did the same in my country