In some ways Mike’s answer seems very obvious. Except when I was a kid doing this would have been inconceivable. Doing it would be the kind of thing that could get you banned from places. It just wasn’t done, but I’ve seen it many times in the last decade. In my head though this is still something you just shouldn’t do. It was kind of refreshing when I showed the script to my editors and one of them said “That’s a huge no-no in the restaurant industry, usually.” So apparently there are still places where old standards still exist. They continued with “But they do work there so they can make a call about it pretty safely.” Which was also my thinking if the premise seemed off to some people. Bridgette is someone who generally needs some kind of permission structure established before doing things. The fact that she simply gives in to Maddison’s wishes because everyone else spoils her is a pretty obvious expression of her tendency to conform to the group’s hierarchy. And yet she is not so weak willed as to not express how much it bothers her that she never gets a say in things. At least from her perspective. A lot of friend groups have at least one member who is masterful at passive manipulation. On some level Maddison has trained her friends to give in to her demands because they are easygoing and generally fine with her choices. That said, I doubt anyone can imagine Evrina rolling over the way the others do, which is obviously why she and Maddison have some friction, among other things. Even then though Maddison is also one of her oldest friends, so in her own way she likely spoils Maddison too. It just doesn’t take the form it does with the others, plus Evrina probably thinks that making Maddi do things she doesn’t want to is good for her on some level. She may even be right. Bridgette is just willing to complain in a way that’s loud enough for everyone to hear, but not to go so far as to force the issue for a very long time. I’ve written Bridgette as a bit immature too, so in some ways she and Maddison are the little sisters of the group even though they are all withing a few years of each other in age.

Anyway, I’m writing this on Sunday morning and I really want to sleep a bit if I can. I got very stressed over the weekend and it caused problems, so I want to try and relax and see if I can break out of this ultra anxious thought pattern I’ve fallen into. Mom wants to do some things and I’m not very useful when I’m tired and jittery. I’m going to try and make Wednesday’s page later today if I can. I wasn’t able to get much done over the weekend so my tiny buffer got used up. If I can convince my brain to actually sleep just a little bit it would do wonders for me. Regardless, I will have a new page up on Wednesday one way or another. I hope you have a nice start to your week, and I look forward to meeting up again on Wednesday. Until then, remember to floss.

21 Comments

I love how this story line seems to exist to make the characters we see less crazy more adorable

I know if I were a specialty restaurant owner/manager that had a super narrow menu range I would not be expecting employees to eat from that menu at every single meal.

Especially if said menu is a greasy calorie bomb on the best of days. It’s a good way to lose employees due to quitting or the ‘beetus.

Exactly.

I worked a lot of service when I was younger and it depended a lot on how the customer was about it.

If someone came up and asked permission and was nice about it, it was usually allowed. Although it depended. When I worked fast food it was always brutally strict. But sit down places usually gave a lot more leeway, especially if they were privately owned.

Just remember, flossing daily adds seven years to your life expectancy.

Not lying.

Flossing prevents guns disease.
Gum disease means you are ways sick.
Always being sick compromises your immune system.
To the tune of sevens years (on average) off your life.

Now why would I want to live to an old fart who barely remembers his name. Let me die when I have some dignity left.

Eating workday lunch doesn’t have to be what you make at location. But I have yet to see restaurant that allows one to consume what you have brought outside in their customer dining area.

I assure you it happens now.

My brother does gig work, delivering for Uber Eats and Doordash and a good bit of his deliveries are to restaurant employees ordering out from somewhere else. Domino’s to McDonald’s, local hole on the wall pizza place to chain steakhouse. That kind of thing. As long as they eat in the break room, apparently it’s fine at most places.

A lot of friend groups have at least one member who is masterful at passive manipulation. On some level Maddison has trained her friends to give in to her demands because they are easygoing and generally fine with her choices.

This lines up very well with the idea that Maddie isn’t “intelligent” in the learned, educated, vocabulary sense of the word, but that there’s more than one kind of smarts.

There’s even a phrase, though not a flattering one, for it: Low Cunning.

I work in a restaurant and a lot of employees have other food delivered fairly often. Or when the management brings in food for us on long busy days like holidays. For the fourth of july they brought in a stack of pizzas about as tall as I am, and slightly more often there will be donuts or maybe cake for someones birthday. We have a couple tables where they dont really seat people, theyre more in the corner for servers to roll up silverware and stuff, and those are the ones we will sit at if were eating something.

Besides that, I know its a thing – especially with families with kids, to bring other food to a place where the majority want to eat so that everyone can at least eat together even if one or two people aren’t eating the establishment’s food. But i havent seen it much. i have a friend who pretty much brings a drink with her everywhere she goes – a can of whatever soda or energy drink, and ive never seen an eatery do anything about it beyond once giving her one of their branded coozies to put it in rather than the one she was using. which even then wasn’t a “hey you better not be advertizing something else in here” it was a playful way to give her a free thing that she clearly would actually use. (i dont know anyone else who actually uses can coozies) and i guess also some free advertizing for them, now that im thinkin about it.

im sorry i tangented really hard. hi, love the comic, love getting to learn more about about Bridgette and the dynamic of the Victoria friend group!

I was never brave enough to try it myself. I do recall a night from my days as a karaoke DJ at a local Japanese Hibachi place that someone tried to walk in with a big bag of Burger King. Bartender caught them and it was quite the kerfuffle while they were getting thrown out. Next week, a big NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK sign appeared on the door to the karaoke lounge.

Considering Victoria’s comments to Bridgette last night the teasing at the end is even more entertaining. Also, I just realized from looking at the comic number that the comic is now in the 3000’s and, while also thinking about how long some of the storylines are, a thought occurred to me. With that said, thanks for making the stories and I hope we get thousands more of the comic. The storylines being long aren’t an issue since this usually a three panel a page comic and each one is a well done piece of entertainment.

For the record I appreciate the motion lines for Bridgette’s quickturn from Mike to Victoria, does add some more adorableness as she loses her adorable little mind.

I think the details matter. Employees bringing food for their lunch into the break room is very different than a customer bring in a big bag of juicy burgers into a vegan restaurant.
Beary Fun I would think would be okay with brining in a discrete sandwich to go with the pizza ordered while sitting in the large entertainment area. But I do not write their policies.

They may even take it as a hint to expand the menu at least slightly, though there is a risk of trying to do too many things that a lot of venues fall into.

In this case though, if they have the facilities to make both pizza and breadsticks, then they possibly have everything they need to make bread loaves or flats that can be used for making sandwiches, and some of the pizza ingredients can be repurposed for that too. If taco pizza is on the menu, then one probably has a supply of lettuce. Etc.

The region I’m from it’s pretty standard for adults going to a expensive or “exotic” restaurant to get their kids something from like McDonalds. No one ever kicked up a fuss.

Frankly as long as someone is buying something I don’t think it’s a big deal. The “rules” should go both ways for adults too.

Is it really strange for staff members to not be bound by this rule, though? Especially at a place that only serves pizza, or chicken wings, or whatever? Especially if they are in the breakroom, or out back, or at least put their outside food on a house plate and eat at the far back table? I suppose some bosses would care, but that’s just because there are always some jerks with the weirdest rules out in the world, rather than being the norm.

At the same time, I would certainly be annoyed by Maddie here. She can come sit at the pizza place all day long if she wants, she just needs to leave for an hour with her friends so they can grab a burger.

If anyone can charm a waiter or waitstaff-er into doing what she wants done, it’s Vicky!
;D

I remember distinctly one time when I was a kid I didn’t wanna eat something at this one fast food place and wanted someplace else so my dad was like “okay” and got what I wanted and then we went to other place and my little mind was incredibly worried because I had food from somewhere else than the place we were at and thought I would get in trouble. My dad was like “it’s fine” and it ultimately was, but it’s funny to reflect on how even as a kid my mind felt there was something wrong about this when by all accounts the people working there could care less

3015 The Forbidden Din Din.

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