Do you get a lot of free food?

How restaurant comps really work

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I attended exactly one economics lecture in college and this was the first thing the professor said. She talked about opportunity cost, how every minute we spent in class was a minute we couldn’t spend anywhere else. The rest of the class was about the twice weekly homework we had to submit online and all the group projects involved. I took something from the lecture—I went back to my dorm after and immediately dropped the class, switching to a History of the American South course that wound up changing my whole college trajectory (proud history major here).

When I meet people and mention I work in food, one of the most common comments I get is “you must get a lot of free food” and “oh do you get to go review restaurants?” Social media can lend the idea that food writers and food influencers are dining out every night and not paying a dollar. That’s not quite true and it’s also not quite false. The vast majority of what I eat is stuff I pay for myself or share with friends and family. When I don’t pay for it, here’s how it really works, in my experience, which is living and working in New York City.

This issue will solely cover restaurant meals and I plan to write separately about events and gifting/samples. For each category of “free” meal, I’m sharing examples of when this happened to me. We are getting specific. Also, if you are ever in a position to get a free meal, tip!!

Scenario 1: You get a comped meal

This is when a restaurant, usually through a PR agency, invites you and a guest to have a free meal at a restaurant, often a restaurant that has just opened or has gone through a major change (adding a new menu, a new chef or beverage director has started, they launched brunch/outdoor dining/etc). I started getting invitations like this fairly early in my freelance career, in 2018, and at the time I was writing a lot of local news. I was giddy the first time I got one and still feel extremely lucky to be invited.