A couple months ago I got an unusual invitation to a quasi-fancy dinner from a habitually frugal friend of mine. It wasn’t until I turned down the offer that he excitedly admitted that the dinner would have been free for both of us.

Apparently, the seafood restuarant, McCormick & Schmicks (M&S) was offering $15 gift certificate coupons online that were good only after making an online reservation for the restaurant.  The other catch was that only one coupon per table could be used.  My friend’s initial plan involved making separate reservations for the two of us at different tables.  Though we would’ve been dining solo, we could still catch up over cell phones or via clandestine hand signals. For him, a free dinner was worth the inconvenience. 

It wasn’t until my friend took a look at the menu that he began to panic—with main dishes starting at around $17, the logic behind the offer was probably M&S’s assumption that with two or more people ordering drinks and at least one full course, they could generate a profit even with the coupon.  We still could’ve eaten very cheaply alone and at separate tables—but my friend wasn’t looking for an inexpensive dinner, he was committed to eating for free. 

At that point, he realized that M&S has two locations in Washington, DC. That meant that we could make consecutive reservations at both restaurants and receive two $15 coupons each, which would ultimately result in a $30 meal made up of an assortment of soup, appetizers, and a hearty supply of free bread. 

 I didn’t end up engaging in this scheme, but my friend had little trouble finding a willing accomplice and the two managed to pull it off. Afterwards, he acknowledged that his only faux pas was letting his own gluttony get the best of him, admitting “…needless to say, we were completely full by the time we got to our 7:30 reservation and had a joyless second meal.  I pretty much had to vomit and barely touched my crab bisque, however glorious the idea of it was.” 

M&S no longer has this promotional offer, but that doesn’t mean that the moral of the story can’t be translated into a variety of other situations.  Coupons and gift certificates are often dangled in front of consumers to coax them into spending money when they normally wouldn’t.  The lesson to be learned from this and the Free Food-a-thon is that if you are willing to risk shame, embarrassment—or at least potential awkwardness—you can outwit these ploys and open your mouth without opening your wallet.  Just take it easy on the bread basket.