Whether a teenage rite of passage or an intoxicated person's inadvertent mistake, having customers who leave without paying is just another part of the restaurant business.

But restaurant owners and managers say dining and dashing, the act of ordering and eating food at a restaurant and skipping out without paying the bill, doesn't happen too often in Santa Fe.

"It happens at night, not that frequently," said Brisa Barnes, owner of the Atomic Cafe. "For the most part people do pay their checks."

Three people allegedly skipped out on their $150 tab at the Blue Corn Cafe on March 5, shortly before one of the three, James Ruiz, allegedly slammed into the back of a sedan, killing two sisters — Deshauna Peshlakai, 17, and Del Lynn Peshlakai, 19. Ruiz, 34, had a blood alcohol content of 0.22, more than two and a half times the legal driving limit.

Barnes said that a couple of times a year people will attempt to dine and dash, but they are usually caught and end up paying.

She recalled one incident a few years ago when a group of teenagers ran out before paying, and one of the employees tracked them down and wrote down their license plate number. A police officer who frequented the restaurant ran the teen's plates and showed up at her doorstep and told her parents what had happened. The bill got paid then and there.

It's not just teenagers who dine and dash, though, Barnes said.

"It's a lot of drunk people," she said. "We are open after the bars close, and we get a lot of people that have been out."

One Academy Award-winning actor who was in town filming a movie came in drunk one night and walked out without paying, and employees had to chase after him, Barnes said.

"He was apologetic, he was just forgetful." Barnes said. "It was an honest mistake."

The Catamount Bar and Grill doesn't have much of a problem of people skipping out on food bills, but sometimes people walk out forgetting to close their bar tabs, said manager Kathi McKenna. In that case the bar just closes out the patron's credit card and holds onto it until they come back.

"It does make it a little harder now that you have to go outside and smoke," McKenna said. She remembered once, about a year and a half ago, a man came into the bar and ordered a couple of drinks and some food and left before paying his bill.

Max Scott, a bartender at El Farol, said at least once a week someone orders drinks and forgets to pay.

He said the largest tab someone has walked out on was about $170, but that the customer went back a couple of days later to pay it off.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a problem," said El Farol general manager Jeff Dixon. "Generally you know the person, it's somebody you recognize that has been in before."

Dixon estimates that about a quarter of the people who walk out usually call to pay their tab the next day.

"They realize they're not going to be allowed back in," Dixon said. "I give anybody the benefit of the doubt once, if I'm being extremely gracious, twice.

"And then after that you're not allowed back in."

He said there are a few locals who are notorious for skipping out on bills and hop from place to place, leaving a trail of unpaid bills.

The staff relies on customers' business to pay their bills and feed their families, and dine and dashing isn't tolerated, Dixon said.

"I would doubt that they would like me to come to their business and walk out their door and take something and not pay," Dixon said.

Contact Veronica Cruz at 986-3042 or vcruz@sfnewmexican.com.