Katz's Management Explains the $50 Lost Ticket Fee

A couple reported that during a visit to Katz’s Delicatessen a girlfriend lost her order ticket and management demanded a $50 “lost ticket” fee on top of the bill, prompting an online debate. Katz’s management says the policy, in place for roughly the last decade of the deli’s 122-year history, was adopted because of extreme daily volume - roughly one to two thousand customers - and the simple fraud risk posed by a misplaced blank ticket. Even when another party member holds the bill and money, a lost blank ticket could be found and used to make unauthorized purchases, so the fee is meant to force customers to search for the ticket and deter casual carelessness.

Management defends the $50 level as proportionate given typical spending on large sandwiches, take-home salamis and merch, and as a practical enforcement tool to protect the check-control system. The piece also notes a relevant New York consumer-protection rule that bars adding surcharges to menu prices, though it exempts bona fide service charges and posted personal minimums; that legal framework suggests regulatory scrutiny is unlikely to overturn Katz’s internal policy.