Monday bun – After 35 years in restaurants, Brian “Rusty” Russino follows a simple Monday rule: he avoids ordering buns and similar items at the start of the week. It isn’t about food safety—it’s about freshness, influenced by how many restaurants receive deliveries and wh
For Brian “Rusty” Russino, the Monday start of the week doesn’t come with dread—just a habit.
After more than 35 years in the restaurant business, and more than 22 years with The Cheesecake Factory, Russino has developed a personal rule he still sticks to when he dines out. He calls it the “Monday bun.”
It’s the one food he avoids ordering on Mondays, not because he believes it’s unsafe. Russino is blunt about the point: the “Monday bun” isn’t about food safety. It’s about freshness.
The idea is simple, and it comes from what he’s seen from behind restaurant doors. Russino says many restaurants receive deliveries on Fridays or Saturdays. If some of that product doesn’t get used over the weekend, it may still be sitting in inventory on Monday.
“A bun that’s been around for a few days can be very different from one that arrived more recently,” Russino explains. He doesn’t suggest anything is wrong with it—just that it may not be as soft and pillowy as he wants when he’s paying for a meal.
That same freshness logic extends beyond bread. Seafood is another example for him. He again stresses there’s no claim of danger—only that it may not be as fresh as it was a few days earlier.
The term itself has a personal origin. Russino said he and his wife used to joke about the “Monday bun” when they went out to eat on Mondays and Tuesdays, which were often the days off for him.
Russino’s confidence when he eats out is also shaped by what he knows about restaurant systems. He says good restaurants rely on processes that manage both freshness and food safety. At The Cheesecake Factory. he points to specific practices: products are dated upon arrival. rotation systems are used. and shelf lives are tracked. He says there are people responsible for validating products as they come through the back door. with close attention paid to how ingredients are stored and cared for.
Those systems are supported, he says, by forecasting and ordering tools designed to prevent restaurants from carrying excess inventory—especially in busy locations where products shouldn’t linger past the weekend.
Even so, Russino’s Monday habit remains. After decades in the industry. the phrase has stuck with him as a quick way to think about freshness at the start of the week—an old “industry quirk” that doesn’t control his work life. but still influences his choices when he’s a guest at someone else’s table.
restaurants The Cheesecake Factory food freshness Monday bun inventory management restaurant operations Brian Russino Orange County San Diego Southern California
So basically he thinks buns get poisoned by Monday? Lol.
I always hated Monday buns anyway. Like why do they taste different every week? Could be the deliveries thing or whatever.
Wait he said it’s not about food safety but then he’s talking about stuff sitting in inventory from Friday/Saturday… that’s literally how people get sick though. Idk I’m just saying. Also Cheesecake Factory has like a million items, they probably don’t even track anything like he claims.
This is kind of comforting? Like I do the same thing with coffee from the fridge, not because it’s “unsafe,” just because it’s different. But “Monday bun” sounds like an actual conspiracy term my uncle would say. Anyway if a place has good rotation then cool, but I can’t tell me why my bread always feels flatter on Mondays now that I think about it.