With only a few days left until Valentine's, we thought that it would be fun to take a look at the role that food can play in our relationships with a little mini series leading into February 14th.
There are lots of reasons why couples break up and chances are that they don't always have to do with food (unless you changed your eating habits to impress someone with really restrictive diet and it just didn't work out), but it's not entirely uncommon for the relationship to - literally - end over food because some people like the restaurant breakup.
The restaurant breakup is just what it sounds like: a breakup in a restaurant. The reason that some people like to end their involvement over dinner is that they're hoping to avoid a scene, trying to use the food as a distraction and the other diners as a way to keep the fuss to a minimum. As long as they're picking up the tab, some of those doing the breaking up feel somewhat absolved of guilt - after all, s/he got a free meal!
In the movies, there is always one breakup restaurant, usually a quiet and dimly lit Italian place with women sobbing quietly into their risottos. Have you ever ended up in one of these restaurants, either as a party to the breakup or simply as a bystander? Would you break up in a restaurant?
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2007 @ 11:58AM
Molly said...
Though I've never broken up or been broken up with in a restaurant, I've waited tables for years and have witnessed my fair share. The saddest, perhaps, was the couple that had their first date at the restaurant and broke up at that same table a year later. The lady left just after their food arrived with a tiny shrug. The guy cried quietly for about ten minutes and paid the bill, leaving two full plates of food behind. We all felt bad after that one.
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2-11-2007 @ 1:26PM
lily said...
I think my favorite was when a guy chose a nice lunch at a very crowded and popular Japanese restaurant to tell me that I no longer satisfied him due to the hours I worked (he didn't work), and he had been seeing a prostitute to meet his needs.
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2-12-2007 @ 10:23AM
Mark said...
Twice. Once was spontaneous, just happened to be as we were finishing dinner at a nice restaurant.
The other wasn't quite PLANNED as a breakup dinner, but it sure turned into a circus show pretty quick. She was completely loud and foul-mouthed before she stood up and stormed out.
I was TOTALLY bracing myself for the drink thrown in my face too, but she showed restraint (for once) and instead called me a "wanker" as she stomped out with her nose in the air :)
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2-13-2007 @ 4:29PM
Traci said...
After borrowing lots of money and convincing me to swindle him free food from a bakery I managed on weekends, my ex took me to a pizza place/bar, ordered pizza and a pitcher of beer, and told me he'd put a deposit down on a new apartment, leaving me to deal with his portion of the bills at our old place. I didn't make a scene, but I sure lost my appetite.
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