Please Explain to Me ... Lettuce on Appetizer Plates

Mmmmm. Lettuce. (Julia Beizer - The Washington Post)

You've seen this scene before.

You're at happy hour at any number of pubby establishments, and you order a plate of deep-fried bar eats to sate your growling stomach. Why, oh, why, do they arrive on a bed of lettuce? This particularly egregious example comes to us courtesy of the Post Pub. I mean, that isn't even a bed of lettuce. That's like four strips of greasy, wilted iceberg that has shriveled under the heat from the mozzerella sticks.

So, Post Pub, you have the floor. Why the lettuce?

"I have no idea," said manager Kathy Caparatto. "I think it's decoration. Presentation, I suppose." Well, they're missing the mark on this particular plate. And no, no one ever asks for a side of Thousand Island and eats the lettuce. Only one of the pub's two chefs employs this garnish tactic, but he's not alone. The lettuce phenomenon has happened to me at places much nicer than the divey Post Pub. Why do restaurants do this? Commenters -- got an answer?

Hat tip to Post Rock for the inspired headline.

-- Julia