Over to you

01 December 2003 by
Over to you

Do you think it is morally defensible to steal an ashtray from a restaurant?

No, I don't think it is. We've started making the pepper mills bigger so people can't put them in their handbags any more. We had a three-foot-long dried flower arrangement taken from one restaurant, which was returned two years later with a note saying "sorry", and one customer took a bay tree from outside our restaurant. So ashtrays are chicken feed really.

Paul Heathcote, Chef-restaurateur, Heathcotes restaurants, Lancashire

It shouldn't be done. It's like going to someone's house, saying "I like that ashtray" and taking it. The cost mounts up. And I know for a fact that nine times out of 10 you could simply ask the waiter or manager for one as a souvenir. [Hotels and restaurants] should either have a price for things like ashtrays or give them away as a gesture of goodwill.

Robert Watson, Head concierge, the Conrad London hotel, Chelsea Harbour

I do understand people doing it. They want a souvenir and they believe they're not doing anything wrong. It's a bit like smoking behind the bike sheds at school. But it costs money, and I think they should buy the ashtrays.

Stuart Everson, Managing director, Everson Hewett

I think if an ashtray has the name of your restaurant on it or is branded in some way, it is a piece of marketing material and therefore a consumable. I also know several restaurants that actively encourage guests to take the ashtrays for this very reason.

Max Renzland, Le Petit Max, Battersea and Chez Max, Knightsbridge

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