You have helped me negotiate modern ethics before. You all gave me permission to accept a prize for being a top fundraiser for the annual SEABlue Prostate Awareness run*. Barb appreciates the very high-powered cordless electric broom. So I am hoping you all can help me out one more time.

As COVID and its aftermath have collapsed everyone’s world our dining-out choices have become more limited. A quick perusal of my credit card charges confirms that about 90% of our dining-out dollars are spent at one or another of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises’ many restaurants.

And that is OK with us. Wildfire has been one of our favorite restaurants for years. Di Pescara and Saranello’s are just minutes away for tempting fish and Italian fare. I even chose to celebrate my last birthday at L Woods, the Lettuce restaurant a short hop down the Eden’s Expressway. I considered it a tribute to my late parents, who loved Sunday family dinners at Bones, the LEYE restaurant that preceded L Woods in that Lincolnwood location.

And…drumroll…Lettuce Entertain You restaurants give points. Their Frequent Diner Club awards bonus points for every dollar spent. Sometimes special deals award double points or more. Points add up to dollars off future visits. I usually accumulate enough points for a few macadamia nut-crusted halibut and horseradish-crusted filet dinners a year. Yum.

Which leads to my social dilemma. Some dear Florida friends of ours are spending the summer in Chicago and invited us out for dinner. The little celebration was a thank-you for Barb’s assistance in setting up our friend’s Chicago residence. A second helpful couple was also invited.

Our host’s restaurant choice for the evening? Wildfire.

It was a lovely evening. And as our hosts paid the substantial bill, I realized that being out-of-towners, they were not Frequent Diner members. All I could think about was those potential points floating away into the kitchen miasma!

I knew Lettuce is usually very lenient about letting anyone in the dining party claim the points. I knew all I would have had to do to get those award dollars would have been to ask our hosts if they minded my putting in a claim. But… I froze–I couldn’t do it.

So my question to you, my knowledgable readers–if I had asked for the Frequent Diner points to be credited to my account, even though I did not pay for the meal, would have I been committing a major social faux-pas? Or would it have been absolutely fine after a relaxed dinner with great friends? Yes, I know it is a typical “first world problem.” But I want the answer!

Let me know your thoughts–leave a comment here, or email me at les.raff@post.com.

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*more on this year’s run here.

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