Vegan Flips Out Over Restaurant Bill After Bringing His Own Pasta

Marlboro, NJ – A vegan flipped out after he and his partner were charged the full price in a restaruant – despite bringing their own pasta.

This tale of middle-class woe truly began last year, when Jack and Toby Litsky both turned 50. The couple decided to go vegan, cutting out meat, dairy, and fat in a bid to cut their cholesterol and lose weight.

This worked well, though eating out proved tricky, with Jack noticing that some restaurants (despite their menus saying otherwise) didn’t actually use vegan-friendly, wholegrain pasta. To overcome this, Jack would take his own dried pasta to restaurants and receive a discount in return. Thus, Litsky says their meals would typically cost $12.

One of the couple’s favorite haunts was Monticello restaurant in NJ, an establishment that was happy to offer the aforementioned discount. Yet when Jack and Toby headed to Monticello with their 100% wholegrain pasta over the weekend, they were charged the full price of $24 and weren’t allowed to use a $50 coupon.

Cue vegan outrage. Jack immediately stormed to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, which promptly wrote a 1,300-word story about Litsky’s experience, complete with a solemn-looking Jack clutching his pasta. Speaking to Star-Ledger reporter Karin Price Mueller, the out-of-pocket vegan said:

“[The owner] said, ‘You come here on a Saturday night and order a custom meal. I have to charge you extra.’ I said, ‘But you’ve already set the precedent where you charged me a lot less than that on several occasions,’ and she said that was the old manager’s decision and this was the new price.”

The police were later called, and threatened to arrest Litsky for “theft of services,” prompting the disgruntled vegan to settle his bill. The restaurant has since refunded the $12.

While a precedent of giving discounts was set here (though this is also disputed by the Monticello management), it’s kind of difficult to feel sympathy with Litsky when you see the instruction card he handed the waitress. Littered with instructions for “Extra Extra Extra” ingredients, I’m not massively surprised the owner decided to charge the full price.

Do you think Jack deserved a discount in this situation?