Farmhouse Tavern cuts Sunday prices hourly so it closes Mondays with an empty fridge

NPR reported in 2019 on Farmhouse Tavern in Toronto, where owner Darcy MacDonell opened in June 2012 with a weekly Sunday event called F*** Mondays. The restaurant is closed for the next three days, and MacDonell insists on freshness, so he refuses to freeze food or re-cork wine. Instead, eight hourly food and drink discounts run on Sunday evenings, such as C$1 oysters and half-price entrees, aimed at selling out perishables and opened bottles.

The kitchen plans backwards from the fridge. Chef Ashley MacNeil decides how many fish fillets to cook, freezes only what she can cure, and turns leftover brunch biscuits into croutons. Menus are chalkboards, so servers cross off dishes as they sell out, and diners told NPR that the prospect of running out made them order faster.

At the end of the reported Sunday, the kitchen closed at 9:30 p.m. with a nearly empty fridge; staff finished the part-empty wine bottles at the bar.

Sunday evenings in the restaurant's neighbourhood were reliably quiet, so waste was predictable and could be planned against.

Steep, time-limited discounts attract customers who would not otherwise come and who order more than the specials.

Crossing dishes off the board makes remaining items scarce, which speeds orders.

The owner's rule against freezing or recorking removes the easy exits and forces the clearance.

If waste comes from a slow night before a closure, price the stock to clear it and use scarcity to speed up orders.

On the reported Sunday the restaurant fed upwards of 70 people and wasted about eight ounces of chimichurri, with the leftover Brussels sprouts to be pickled for later. MacDonell says it takes mental energy but is worth it. The article notes restaurants, hotels and institutions account for 13 percent of avoidable Canadian food waste, and the US restaurant sector 18 percent of US food waste. NPR gives no revenue figures.