Is the Doggy Bag Dead?

Restaurateurs in big cities have noticed a somewhat surprising shift in diner behavior.

Emmett Burke has noticed something unusual in his Manhattan restaurants. Half-eaten pizzas dot tables and bar space, left behind by those who ordered them. At Emmett’s and Emmett’s on Grove, Mr. Burke’s two Chicago-style pizzerias, diners seem increasingly uninterested in asking for boxes to take home leftovers.

“I will look at the plates coming back to the kitchen and all the food we are throwing out, and I will ask if something is wrong,” he said. “I would assume most people would love to have a quarter of a pizza in their fridge.”

A number of restaurateurs in New York and other cities have observed this surprising shift in behavior. They attribute doggy-bag aversion to a number of factors, including social stigmas, the ease of ordering takeout and a return to sharing food after the pandemic made doing so taboo.

The average American leaves 53 pounds, or $329 worth, of food on the plate at restaurants every year, according to 2023 data from ReFED, an organization that works to reduce food waste. Changes to that number over time are hard to track, said Dana Gunders, the group’s president. But anecdotal evidence suggests such a change in diners’ perception of leftovers that the organization plans to commission a study on the topic.

“There are some people who have a thing against them,” Ms. Gunders said. “People who just say, ‘I don’t eat leftovers,’ as a matter of principle.”