Is having a “come with guy” rude?

The story goes like this. In college, my friends/roommates and I came up with the term “Come with guy.” I believe the credit actually goes to Dan, who is also a jelly. Either way, what this means is that when one of us wanted to eat out, say at Applebee’s or something, we never wanted to go alone, so we would take someone along with us. Many times, this meant we bribed someone who didn’t want to go. So, 2 people would go to Applebee’s, and one would order food.

Fast forward to now. A friend of mine now thinks this is really rude, and would rather not go to a restaurant at all, if I am not going to eat anything.

If I am not hungry and I don’t want to eat, I am doing him a favor by going to the restaurant to keep him company. It has gotten to the point now where he will ask me before we go, “Are you going to order anything?” If I say no, he says never mind and we talk about something else.

His argument is that is extremely rude for me to go and not order something. I told him he is both an idiot, and over reacting. Am I way off base? How is this rude? If it weren’t for me, the waiter or waitress would have nothing at all.

Just saying.