{"id":80849,"date":"2014-12-15T15:30:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T20:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=80849"},"modified":"2014-12-15T16:20:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T21:20:28","slug":"fine-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/15\/fine-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Dining"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Columbano_Bordalo_Pinheiro_-_Refeicao_Interrompida\"<\/a>

Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, Refei\u00e7\u00e3o interrompida (Interrupted Meal)<\/i>, 1883.<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a human-interest story <\/a>that\u2019s been making the rounds on the \u201cWeird But True\u201d circuit lately. It concerns a restaurant in\u00a0Chongqing, China, that gives diners discounts based on their weight. Upon entry, customers step onto a scale. As China Radio International reports, \u201cThe policy says, for male diners, the more they weigh, the more discounts they are entitled to.\u00a0If a male customer weighs more than 140 kilograms, then the meal is free.\u201d That\u2019s 308 pounds. For a woman to eat free, however, she must weigh fewer than seventy-six pounds. In other words, the promotion applies to overweight men and very thin women. It\u2019s what you might call the Anti\u2013Jack Sprat Initiative. The exact thinking behind the marketing scheme is not explained.<\/p>\n

My family did not eat out very often. When we did, it was most often at one of two places: Pizza and Brew or the Ground Round. (I always agitated for the sophistication of Red Lobster, but I rarely got my way.) Pizza and Brew\u2019s appeal was obvious enough\u2014pizza, and I guess brew\u2014but we went to the Ground Round for one reason only: Pay What You Weigh Night. <\/p>\n

If you remember the chain, which was found primarily in suburban strip malls, you\u2019ll recall that it was a family restaurant with a sort-of movie theme; they played old cartoons and slapstick silents on screens around the dining room, you got popcorn instead of bread, and there were peanut shells on the floor. (Which actually doesn\u2019t have much to do with movies. I guess the motif was just general old-timey anarchy.) Judging by the name, it was probably known for its hamburgers. Since I only ever ate what they offered on the\u2014understandably low-overhead\u2014Pay\u00a0What\u00a0You Weigh children\u2019s menu, I can\u2019t speak to that.<\/p>\n

I do recall, clearly, the humiliation of the weighing-in. This was technically the one time where our incredible runtiness was an asset, at least from my parents\u2019 perspective, but I have stinging memories of mounting the scale and having some teenager slap a sticker to my shirt with a number on it. We usually went with other families; although their kids were several years younger, their meals always cost more. Then we\u2019d get to choose a fifty-cent grilled cheese, or a sixty-five-cent hot dog, and stare at Elmer Fudd doing something on-screen. There must have been some hidden costs in there. Right? At the time it was merely sort of undignified; now the whole practice strikes me as nightmarish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an age of increasing childhood obesity, this doesn\u2019t seem like a very sensitive proposition. But it\u2019s moot: in 2004 the Ground Round filed for Chapter 11, and most of the branches closed. The few remaining franchises have abandoned the kid-friendly vibe, and the current iteration \u201cmarkets to the adult dining and cocktails crowd.\u201d Presumably they wouldn\u2019t take kindly to being charged for drinks based on weight.<\/p>\n

But who knows? The\u00a0Chongqing gimmick has apparently inspired imitators. Now there\u2019s a place in Shanghai where only tall people get discounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a human-interest story that\u2019s been making the rounds on the \u201cWeird But True\u201d circuit lately. It concerns a restaurant in\u00a0Chongqing, China, that gives diners discounts based on their weight. Upon entry, customers step onto a scale. As China Radio International reports, \u201cThe policy says, for male diners, the more they weigh, the more discounts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16378,16377,8892,1815,16375,115,16376,16373,514,16374,3168],"class_list":["post-80849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-chain-eateries","tag-chain-restaurants","tag-childhood","tag-china","tag-chongqing","tag-food","tag-humiliation","tag-meals","tag-suburbia","tag-the-ground-round","tag-weight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPay What You Weigh at the Ground Round<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein remembers a peculiar ritual at the Ground Round, a defunct chain eatery where once you could pay what you weigh for a meal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/15\/fine-dining\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fine Dining by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 15, 2014 \u2013 There\u2019s a human-interest story that\u2019s been making the rounds on the \u201cWeird But True\u201d circuit lately. 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