Jesse Matsuoka, who co-owns 28-year-old sushi Mecca Sen in Sag Harbor, was delighted when some longtime customers invited him to their Hamptons banquet. After mingling on the garden, he popped into the kitchen to speak along with his hostess — however when somebody opened certainly one of her cupboards, Matsuoka’s jaw dropped.
“Over the years we rigorously sourced beautiful hand-crafted sake cups from Japan, and so they have been distinctive,” he defined. “When the cupboard opened, I noticed years price of a number of types. Our complete assortment on her cabinets!”
Matsuoka is only one of many New York restaurateurs who’ve had their possessions being pilfered by patrons. From dishes and cutlery to art work, sticky-fingered diners are overtly claiming off-menu objects as their very own.
“Persons are notably taken with taking issues with logos on them as a result of they develop into collectibles,” stated John McDonald, who owns a number of downtown sizzling spots together with Bowery Meat, Lure Fishbar and the new Smyth Tavern. “Our steak knives that had Bowery Meat embossed on the deal with price $50 every, so we put them on show on the market. Nonetheless, individuals simply took them. Now, we’re making them with out logos.”
Pens bearing eating places’ names are always taken and are typically chalked up to advertising and marketing prices. However Jin Ahn, proprietor/accomplice of East Village Hawaiian restaurant Noreetuh, was shocked to seek out his private Montblanc pen — engraved along with his identify — lacking after providing it to a desk of three to signal their test.
“I defined that it was a personalised pen that I obtained as a present, and at first they pretended they hadn’t seen it,” he recalled. “You need to give customers the probability to save lots of face, however I wasn’t going to allow them to stroll off with my pen, so I stated I most likely dropped it at their desk. Ultimately, a lady eliminated it from her bag and apologized, saying she mistook it for her personal as a result of she had a number of glasses of wine.”
It’s gotten so dangerous that restaurateurs are taking steps to guard themselves from the loss.
Mathias Van Leyden, proprietor of Chelsea’s Loulou, stated the bird-shaped glasses his bistro makes use of for cocktails have to get replaced weekly — so he has barely elevated the value of the drinks.
“Typically, customers stroll out with a drink and the glass,” he stated. “Folks will see them at somebody’s home and know that’s a glass from Loulou. It’s the price of doing enterprise, and it occurred so typically that now we cost $2 further per drink.”
The lovable little bottles of sizzling honey at the three Manhattan places of Zazzy’s Pizza have been disappearing so quickly that proprietor Richie Romero switched to massive vessels which can be much less more likely to be carried off. “We changed them with refill bottles which can be too clumsy and ugly to steal,” he stated.
Most house owners don’t need to confront or embarrass their customers over a number of {dollars}. So when a waiter at T-Bar in Southampton reported that somebody was pocketing the glass salt and pepper shakers bought from Crate and Barrel, proprietor Tony Could requested him to not point out it to the company.
“I inform the workers to simply shut their eyes,’’ Could stated. “It’s not price the confrontation and each time they use it they may consider us.”
He did, nevertheless, resolve to connect dispensers of cleaning soap to the rest room partitions, as the little bottles beforehand used have been disappearing shortly.
Liz Pavlou was not as blasé about the salt containers at her stylish Water Mill spot Bistro Été. After a buyer slid certainly one of the substantial, carved teak holders into his pocket, she was incensed.
“Something little and cute, individuals take, however I wouldn’t have believed any person had stolen that, till I noticed it on our digital camera,” she stated. “We had it on video, so I simply added $60 to his bank card.”
And although Loulou has factored in the theft of chicken glasses, when one lady put three of them into her bag, proprietor Van Leyden stated sufficient is sufficient. “We confronted her and the gentleman who was internet hosting the desk, and he shortly provided to pay for them,” the restaurateur stated.
In a latest New York Occasions story about the $149 Pina Professional lamp — the fashionable outdoor-dining accent of the second, because of its heat glow and unobtrusive silhouette — a staffer at celebrity-beloved Soho eatery Altro Paradiso famous how the lights had a bent of mysteriously disappearing.
If it’s tough to think about how somebody slides a lamp into their bag, that’s nothing in comparison with what used to occur at the now-closed MercBar. McDonald, who additionally owned that Soho spot, recalled how customers lifted pricey cowhide cushions from the sofa in addition to an oil portray that was hanging on the again wall.
Years later, it nonetheless stings. “It was so distinctive; if I ever see it wherever, I’m taking it!” he stated.
At Laurent Tourondel’s Chelsea spot The Vine, a framed piece of lingerie by artist Zoë Buckman was purloined. “I’m unsure how they bought out the door with it,” the chef admitted.
The long-lasting September 1995 inaugural cowl of JFK Jr.’s journal George — that includes Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington — used to hold on the wall a WC at American Bar. However a number of months in the past, two girls determined to abscond with it, and have been so unabashed that they later posted their haul on Instagram.
“The bartender knew who they have been, so we contacted them and informed them that if it wasn’t returned by the subsequent day, we’d get the police concerned,” stated Carolina Santos Neves, the restaurant’s consulting govt chef. “By the following morning, it was again, however now it’s gone once more and we don’t know who took it.”
Evil-eye sculptures from the bars of Kyma in New York and Calissa in Water Mill have been additionally pocketed — when the supervisor at Calissa confronted the lady who had slid it off the bar, she claimed the bartender offered it to her, which the worker firmly denied.
And Olmsted chef Greg Baxtrom has had sufficient of diners marching off with the charcoal and lemongrass candles from the loos of his Michelin-rated Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, restaurant.
“Shockingly, they’re lit, sizzling and harmful, however [customers] sneak them out and typically make a multitude dumping out sizzling wax in the sink,’’ he stated. “They suppose meals is pricey now and they’re some model of Robin Hood.”
Somebody even appropriated a framed drawing of quail that certainly one of his workers had created. And Baxtrom is dying to seek out out who it was.
“I hope I catch any person! Should you take one thing of mine, I’ve no qualms about coping with it,” Baxtrom vowed. “The shopper just isn’t at all times proper anymore.”