Takeout menus rubberbanded to your house

I’m walking down 20th Street minding my business when an old lady leans way out her big front window and shouts, “Excuse me! Excuuuse me!” I look up and she continues, “Will you please take that off my railing?” She’s pointing at this Chinese takeout menu. I wonder if she thinks I put it there, but then she says, “I tell them not to put those there, but they don’t listen.”

I go over and tug the thing off her railing. “Just throw it in the street,” she says, “They’re sweeping the gutters tomorrow morning.”

I held onto it and looked for a recycle bin, and then threw it in a trash can after seven blocks of no luck.

21 Responses to “Takeout menus rubberbanded to your house”

  1. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    Littering-by-proxy?

  2. Tony The Pony says:

    I think we need to boycott every restaurant that does this.

  3. H-Town says:

    I totally agree. I *hate* these! They are so wasteful! Mission Mission folks, can you look into whether there is a way to report these restaurants or opt out? I see people who have those “no soliciting” signs on their doors, but they don’t seem very effective.

    • En-Chu Lao says:

      “I see people who have those “no soliciting” signs on their doors, but they don’t seem very effective.” — Have the sign printed in chicken scratch.

  4. Austin McKinley says:

    We should go all Home Alone on these assholes. Electrified doorknobs and iced porch steps.

  5. GG says:

    That’s actually not a bad idea — maybe Mission Mission could maintain a restaurant “blacklist” using user-submitted info? I boycott the ones who leave menus at my own house in Glen Park but I’m sure the menu distribution is much higher in the Mission, and a combined list would be helpful.

  6. Lamb says:

    I dream of saving flyers for a year, then walking by the offending restaurants and tossing them all through their front doors in a flurry, onto the ground.

  7. wizzer says:

    I hate these disgusting flyers too. Sometimes I just call up the resto on the flyer and in some really bad fake chinese accent, pretend to order some food, then say a fake address.

    they hate that.

  8. EH says:

    You people are so parochial. It’s the city, you’re gonna get menus on your door. I don’t like ‘em either, they rarely advertise something that I didn’t already know I didn’t want to visit, but it’s a big kid pants moment whenever they show up. Just put them in the recycling, no tears necessary.

    • Sledge says:

      EH, please stop by my door since you are so gracious. You can just put them in the recycling. ¿No big deal eh? Gonna.

    • andrew says:

      “It’s the city, you’re gonna get menus on your door.”

      seriously people. If you dont like it, move to the hills of Marin.

      On a side note, Advertising is expensive… used to work for the Chronicle and that shit aint cheap. Menus on your doors about as affordable as it gets when it comes to gettin the word out.

  9. Chalkman says:

    This would be less of a problem if there was actually some decent Chinese delivery in the mission, great Chinese delivery of multiple Chinese styles and the ocean are the only things I miss from 10 years in the sunset

    • There’s actually some perfectly decent Chinese delivery adjacent to the Mission — try that newfangled thing they call “the internet”. The real trick is to find a good Chinese restaurant for walk-in eating since that place on Valencia (where Urbun Burger is now) closed.

      • Lynae says:

        Maybe Chinese food is just really subjective or something, because there are several Chinese places in the Mission that I really enjoy:

        Heung Yuen on 22nd and Bartlett: Very friendly waiters, happy to customize things. Everything is made fresh but FAST. Their Hong Kong style noodles are especially good. I like that their food isn’t MSG-y or greasy.

        Punjab on 24th and Bryant: Felicia, the waitress/owner(?), is super sweet. Everything on their menu is delicious and freshly made. They use really good-quality non-gristly meats in their food. They have American dishes on their menu too (sandwiches, pizza, etc.) and shockingly, it is ALSO really good. And although it’s not Chinese, I *highly* recommend their Sunday brunch. You get a free mimosa and it’s way tastier than St. Francis Fountain, for like half the price. For whatever reason, their to-go food is never nearly as good as when you eat in, though.

        And I love Mission Chinese Food. It’s not traditional, sure, but it’s damn tasty.

  10. Pedro says:

    on new years day (with so many spots closed) i ordered some food from one of the menus left on my door. they delivered and it was tasty. while it’s “wasteful” most of these are printed on recycled paper anyway. what’s the big deal? just put it in your recycle bin or move, dudes.

    • GG says:

      1) I hope that’s a joke. Do you really have no idea of what happens to recycled paper before or after it’s been recycled and/or do you think that recycling something, unused, means it’s not wasteful? This boggles my mind.
      2) Nobody is saying it’s a “big deal,” people are saying its a wasteful and annoying practice and it would be useful to let these businesses know that they are driving away potential customers by engaging in it, in hopes of curbing the practice.
      3) There’s this thing called THE INTRANETS where you can find out what restaurants are in your area, what their menu is, whether they are open, and what their phone number is. You should check it out. It even works on holidays!!!

      • Pedro says:

        1. oooooooh my. i’m not arguing wastefulness, just saying, put it in the recycle bin.
        2. at least one of these restaurants got my business.
        3. the intranets isn’t always right or actually tell you if a restaurant is open on holiday.