Not all beige flags are the same, as evidenced by one bar owner’s take on a TikTok user who boasted about swiping restaurants’ hardware.
Nearly 3.5 million viewers have tuned into a scathing review posted by the account @ryanandcc in response to one user sharing that her husband pilfers dishes from fancy restaurants.
“My husband’s beige flag is that every time we go to a fancy restaurant and he likes a dish, he will ask for a box and steal it,” the caption reads over a video of a man who shrugs innocently. The video then cuts to macaroni nestled into stoneware crammed into a to-go box.
Chen-Chen Huo is the TikToker in the video shared by @ryanandcc, who described the actions as “infuriating.” Huo is an owner of Polkcha, a San Francisco craft cocktail bar, and explained how such seemingly low-stakes swipes can crumble small businesses.
Huo declined TODAY.com’s request for comment.
“This is the kind of sh-- that’s infuriating,” Huo says in the clip. “So we have very nice glasses at our bar. They’re, like, $20 each — they’re very nice; they provide a very good experience. But recently, we’re like, ‘We should stop buying these very nice glasses to provide our guests a really nice experience because people have been f---ing taking them. So if you need to hear this, hear this: If you take people’s stuff — if you take small business’s stuff — you have no class. That’s all.”
“Guys pls dont take sh-- from small businesses,” the video’s caption reads. “It’s not cool.”
The post brought on a fierce reaction from users in the comments section.
“I GASPED I had no idea ppl did this,” one user replied.
“I had a regular that would always take our little garnish skewers, so we stopped buying them and when they came in and we didn’t have them they had the audacity to say ‘I wasn’t done w my collection,’” another replied.
The post even stirred up debate about whether there’s a fine line between right and wrong when it comes to stealing.
“We only take from chains ‘cause they’ll give it away,” one user wrote. “Server gave me a few mini cast irons.” Someone replied: “Oh wow, what a noble thieve! We should have more criminals with morals like you.”
@giannacaye, the user behind the original post, said they, “never even thought to do it to a small business” when someone pointed out the stitched video.
@giannacaye did not respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.
Many users were quick to say that petty theft is still theft and, therefore, a crime.
“Franchise owners DON’T make a lot of money,” another argued after folks in the comments were saying they’d only steal from chain restaurants. “And if they did, they could open another restaurant. With your logic, I can steal from you because you made money and have it.”
The National Restaurant Association is the lead trade association for the U.S. restaurant industry. It did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for statistics related to restaurant inventory lost due to theft.