Greenspan, who had dined early in the evening to take advantage of the Sizzler’s Early Bird Meal Deal, ate a large dinner consisting of potato skins and Hibachi Chicken followed by several visits to the restaurant’s tempting Sundae Bar, according to Shondra McMullen, the waitress who served him.
“When I was adding up his check, he started telling me about rising energy prices and a deflationary spiral in Japan and all, and I guess I kind of nodded off,” McMullen says. “And when I woke up, he was gone.”
Chuck Pooley, the assistant manager of the Sizzler that Greenspan stiffed, was surprised to learn of the Fed chief’s actions. “I can’t believe it,” Pooley says. “He comes in here every Saturday night-and he usually pays.”
On Wall Street, market watchers said that every time Greenspan has beat the check at a restaurant in the past, the stock market has fallen into a bearish swoon.
“I remember right before the market crash of ‘87, Greenspan ran out on the check at a Coco’s,” says Oliver Creighton of Morgan Stanley. “We are taking this latest move by the Fed very, very seriously.”
In an attempt to calm the markets, Greenspan released a statement indicating that the economy was in better shape than generally thought and denying that he had pocketed a dozen ketchup packets at KFC.
