Dollar and Up Menu

Under the Dollar and Up Menu marquee there’s a sign that says it serves two eggs and cheese on a roll for $ 1.25. I went in and ordered a grilled cheese, thinking it might be one of the dollar items alluded to in the title. It was not. Before he began cooking the chef informed me that it would be $ 3. I went with the two eggs and cheese instead.
The sandwich was about what you’d expect from a place called Dollar and Up Menu — edible with enough ketchup. I finished my sandwich and looked around for a trashcan to dispose of my paper plate. I had scraped off all the American cheese I could and removed at least one of the two eggs — I basically ate a white bread and ketchup sandwich. Anyway, the plate was a bit messy. And there was no trashcan.
I walked up to the counter to pay. I brought my plate with me. I paid the money and left the plate, thinking the kindly chef would toss it out in the trashcan that I assumed must be hidden behind the counter. As I was walking out of the restaurant I heard the chef call, «You going to leave that with me?»
I turned around, not knowing whether he was talking to me or not. He was staring down at the plate.
«Yes,» I replied, «I was.»
«What am I going to do with it?»
He wasn’t getting upset at this point, he was already furious.
«I don’t know. I thought you had a trashcan.»
«Nope.»
I retrieved my plate and looked about helplessly. «Out there,» he grunted, pointing to the NYC trashcan conveniently located on the corner.
«Thanks,» I said, and went to toss out my sandwich remains.
As I walked away from the counter I could hear the chef mumble, «Throw away his goddamned plate,» meaning, I think, that it was a preposterous thing for me to have assumed that there would be a trashcan inside of his restaurant. And, to his credit, it is a silly assumption that I’m glad to finally be cured of — simply because a place cooks and sells food does not mean that they have any place to dispose of any of the waste generated in the process.
If you go, which I strongly urge you not to, please don’t upset the chef by assuming that there is a waste basket somewhere in the restaurant — there isn’t.