A former Texas Roadhouse server reveals why she loved giving free bread rolls to customers. The answer might surprise you.
TikTok user Michelle (@michellehealthwellness) is currently a registered nurse based in North Carolina. She posts about wellness and health. In a video posted on July 16, she decided to tell her viewers a secret about her time as a server at Texas Roadhouse.
“Retired Texas Roadhouse waitress,” she wrote in the on-screen text. “My ‘free bread’ science was if you filled up on your free bread, you’d be too full to eat all of your dinner, pack it up, and get out of my section faster. Turn and burn.”
Alan Jackson’s “Good Time” plays in the background as she stares at the camera. In the caption, Michelle wrote, “Oh, the good old Roadie days. My most unserious job.”
Viewers React To The Texas Roadhouse Bread Trick
In the comments section, Texas Roadhouse customers and wait staff weighed in on Michelle’s strategy.
One Texas Roadhouse regular said they don’t mind at all. “In my head, I paid for bread and got a free meal for later,” they wrote. “Which means no cooking. So it’s a double win.”
A former server also testified. “Ten years with the company,” the person wrote. “This is exactly how I did it and how I trained the newbies. As much bread as possible. They get four bites in and are full. Drop the check with boxes. In and out in under 40 minutes.”
A second server wrote, “Shhhhh. Don’t tell my secrets.”
Another server agreed. “True at Olive Garden too,” they wrote. “Fill up on soup or salad and breadsticks. Box up their meal for them table side. They leave quicker and they think they received the best service possible.”
However, one person said this wouldn’t work on them. “I fill up on bread and then force myself to pick at my meal, because it won’t be as good reheated. So I probably take the same amount of time as if I didn’t eat bread,” they wrote.
@michellehealthwellness Oh the good old roadie days. My most unserious job #texasroadhouse #humor #waitress
The Truth About Free Restaurant Bread
Anyone who’s taken an introductory economics class has heard the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The principle suggests that when it comes to scarce resources, everything comes with a tradeoff and therefore isn’t truly free.
What does that have to do with free restaurant bread? Well, you might think you’re getting a freebie out of the kindness of the restaurant’s heart, but—as Chowhound points out—it’s really about the bottom line.
Restaurant economics are about margins. So if a diner gets full on a relatively cheap item like bread, you’ll be more willing to accept a reasonable portion size for the entree, which the restaurant generally makes less money selling. “This means a restaurant could shrink the portions and save money on expensive ingredients like meat,” Chowhound explains.
Free bread may also establish goodwill between the restaurant and customer, leading to positive reviews and customers spending more. It may also, like Michelle said, get customers out the door quicker. This leads to more customers in a shorter amount of time and more profits.
Chowhound also ranked the best free chain restaurant breads last year. And it’ll come as no surprise that Texas Roadhouse’s yeast rolls topped the list.
BroBible reached out to Michelle via TikTok comment and direct message for comment.