When Did It Become OK For A $12 Sandwich Not To Come With A Side?

[Capt. Obvious]

When did it become acceptable to charge $12 for a sandwich and not even throw in a pickle on the side?

I do not mean, in any way, to impugn the sandwich I ate for lunch. It was a satisfying, tasty blend of flavors and high-quality ingredients. As such, it was exactly what I ordered, no more and no less. It’s the no more that, as a hungry and cash-conscious constituent, bothers me.

Once upon a time, by which I mean not that long ago, a sandwich, virtually by definition, came accompanied by sides, however humble. Potato salad! Cole slaw! Chips and a pickle! Something, anyway. Those sides really tied the plate together, as Walter Sobchak might say. They added an extra je ne sais quoi, not to mention a semblance of variety, to lunch.

With a sandwich, one bite follows the next in a similar, even potentially monotonous fashion. If you can force yourself to slow down and savor each mouthful, sure, you can enjoy a slightly different experience moment to moment. But there’s no real contrast built in, not the way there would be if you alternated bites of sandwich with, say, bites of pickle.

.....

http://thebillfold.com/2015/08/when-did-it-become-ok-for-a-12-sandwich-not-to-come-with-a-side/

And furthermore, when did it become acceptable to charge an arm and a leg for a steak and then have to throw in a toe and a finger for a starch and veggie to accompany it?

[underahedgerow]

1. How about when someone realized it's all just too darned much food & people are getting fat?

Do ya NEED chips and veg and cole slaw and potato salad along with an entire sandwich?

Nope.

Portion control. I have no pity.

I do find it odd that you had a restaurant experience where they charged you extra for the side dishes? Not a place I'd visit again, they have an accountant running their kitchen, not a chef. I don't want no accountant cooking my food!

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. Dude! or Dudette!

Kinda harshin' the posters buzz, eh? If the average male requires 2,300 hundred calories (from a web site I Googled) and a sandwich might have 500 or 600 calories, he could have something else to eat couldn't he?

[OriginalGeek]

5. Huh? The best steaks I've ever had were

from places that charged extra for sides. But I knew that going in and planned accordingly.
The good news is that one side was usually enough for 2 people.

Of course, those are place I don't get to go to very often.

Anniversary...maybe a birthday. We just celebrated our 29th anniversary a couple weeks ago with fancy steaks and side dishes that cost extra. I even upgraded to asparagus with some kinda sauce on it just for fun.

Nothing says "I love you honey, thanks for putting up with me for almost 30 years now" like 12 dollar asparagus.

[olddots]

2. I remember when you bought a donut

you got a Tumms for a side dish .

[antiquie]

3. Lagniappes are dead.

Not even a pickle, let alone potato salad.
I could use the calories.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. When I was a little kid in the 1950s

I remember my mom complaining about how expensive the 25 cent hamburgers were at the drive in movie theater snack bar.

[LuckyLib]

7. When they decided to charge $10-12 for a burger

or sandwich, then made them jumbo size so you wouldn't scream about the price. If they are jumbo size, they reason, why give you a side for free?

[Chan790]

8. It depends on the sandwich, doesn't it?

I manage the kitchen of a restaurant. We charge $7.95 for a BLT that comes with fries and a pickle. If you want the same BLT on a sub roll instead of Wonder Bread toast...the price is the same despite being a larger sandwich by almost 75%, so it doesn't come with pickle or fries.

It's always been acceptable in a high-quality chophouse or steakhouse to serve prime-grade steak a-la-carte--charging extra for side-dishes either per-person or family-style, provided the sides in question are quality dishes of the kitchen and not a culinary afterthought. (Farm-fresh haricot vert almondine: yes; steamed previously-frozen broccoli: no; Parmesan-herb mashed potatoes: yes; microwaved "baked" potato: no) The issue at-hand is actually one of downmarket accessibility...before chains like Morton's and Ruth Chris took that kind of high-quality chophouse/steakhouse nationally and brought it to the suburbs, most Americans didn't have access to that kind of top-of-the-market ultra-premium steak expertly-prepared. When I first moved to DC, one of my favorite restaurants was Blackie's, a steakhouse in Dupont Circle. For $21, I got the best Porterhouse in the city...and some garnish.

[NobodyHere]

9. I'd hate to be caption obvious here

But just go to another restaurant that serves a $12 sandwich with fries.