Chains or Not: restaurant choices

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So, when you go out to eat, do you choose to eat at chain restaurants or at locally-owned restaurants?

I usually do both. It seems like I go to local places for breakfast & lunch, but chains for dinner.

Sometimes I get the willies about eating at a non-chain, because I imagine that chains are more consistent about cleanliness (I'm sure I'm deluding myself). However, we just check out their health inspection ratings on the county's web page before going.

What about you?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Answers

It's a continuing fascination for me why the US, which has the capacity for interesting and fresh and vibrant food, has so many chain restaurants which do so well.

I must be missing something.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


I will eat in certain "chain" restaurants but find that I frequent them less and less as the years go by me. I hate saying "as I get older" but that pretty much sums it up. I don't have any children so that may be part of it. I think those places are great for families because they offer enough low-priced variety to make kids and adults happy and it's not McDonald's. Unless that's what you meant by chain restaurants? I'd say I might eat at one of those places 3 times a year - tops. Sometimes you just gotta-have-fries. But overall the food is just too gross.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Have you ever read Fast Food Nation? You don't want to read that book if you ever want to set food in a chain restaurant ever ever again. Forget cleanliness of the restaurant. Worry about the cleanliness of your food. Oh, man.

Of course, all restaurants are probably perpetrating all sorts of horrible Hygeine Crimes in the privacy of their kitchens. Eating out is not for the easily-squeamed, or people who think about that sort thing.

Best to just eat your onion crusted roasted organic chicken and pretend that it really is organic, and the crusty isn't coming from being dropped on the floor.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


I think part of the persistence of chains has to do with economics. Like every mall I've been to in the last several years has a Chilis, TGI Fridays, Ground Round, Uncle Moes Family Feedbag, or some such place in the mall itself or in the parking lot (I refer to these as "red and white restaurants" because most of them have a red and white color scheme and lots of crazy crap on the walls). In some more suburban/rural areas these may be some of the only places to eat. Most malls won't accept local stores in the mall, you have to have a proven track record as a chain to sign a contract with them. Ergo, few local restaurants.

Actually, Route 1 in my hometown now has a ton of big box stores where a decade ago there was mostly woods and a few houses. Most of these plazas have three big box stores and one restaurant. All of those are chain restaurants. Since this is where all the traffic in town goes, the few little local restaurants on the other side of town don't stand much of a chance.

Also, starting your own business is hard. People can save up for years, get loans and the like, start a business, work really fucking hard and still have it fail. I remember reading several years ago the stats for restaurant failures and they were insane. It was something like half fail in their first year, of those that remain half fail in their second year, and a whole bunch fail in their third year. A chain restaurant has the capital to make it through this tough time even if a particular location isn't profitable. A mom and pop place doesn't.

In the cities I think it's a different matter. My parents and my sister live in the town where I grew upand they love red and white restaurants. In Seattle, Boston, even Providence there were a ton of other options and I never found myself having to go to Chilis.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


Having just read the very interesting Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, it sounds to me like the reason most new independent restaurants fail is inexperience rather than economics. Most people who open their own restaurants (even those who have some experience with owning restaurants) simply don't know what to serve, how to set up their space, how much to charge, how to advertise, etc. Someone opening a Chili's franchise, on the other hand, has a wealth of research and other information resources to rely on in making their management decisions.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


When I'm tired, very hungry and don't want to muck around with trying out a place and risking going hungry, I opt for a chain. Not Mickey D's though. Blech. That's different from going to Chili's or Friday's.

Friday's menu is so long that I haven't even tried everything on it in 5 years.

But I'm a gourmand and DO like to try new food. One of my fave things to do on the weekend is pick a new place to go to, or an old favorite street corner, local restaurant.

sabs and I like to go restaurant spotting and then slowly tick places off the list of ones we've spotted and want to try.

And Berkeley is so great for that:)

In Paris 3 years ago, we had good luck with restaurants. Just wandered into random places whose menus looked good and had excellent meals at all.

I don't know if I could do that in the States ...

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


I'll eat at either, really. What's interesting though are the chains in which the food is good at some places and awful at others. Mainly that this town's Round Table has the most tasteless pizza I've ever had, while every other RT is excellent. But when you think about it, how often do you find pizza places that AREN'T chains? I don't think I know of any.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Jennifer:

No non-chain pizza places? Really?

Wow, I guess that must vary based on where you live. In New England every town has a couple of local pizza joints. At least in southeastern New England.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


Jennifer:

In Davis? You *are* kidding right? There's a ton of non-chain restaurants there, and tons of non-chain or small chain pizza places (by small chain I mean a local place that's branched out over the years, but not to a national saturation level like Chilis).

Lamppost Pizza, Woodstocks (love their whole wheat crust), Cenarios, Caffe Italia, Symposium... and in downtown/midtown Sacramento there are even more non-chain/small-chain pizza places and restaurants.

You should get out more. ;)

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


I ate at a non-chain Balkan restaraunt the other day. I ordered the "meat plate" cuz stuffed mushrooms and peppers make me gag. Anyway, it was the nastiest supper I've ever paid for. The plate was overflowing with bacon, chorizo sausage, german sausage, beef steak, pork flank, pork chop, chicken breast, and one other kind of animal that I can't remember. The only accompaniment? An ugly dark green salad with a glob of cottage cheese dropped on top. When th waitress brought it out I said, "Those euro fellows must really love their meat." Don't get me wrong - I love meat but geezus. Ohhh -- a meat shiskabob was the eighth meat. yuck.

My mom and I were just talking about the less than healthy aspects of fast food. I'm sure no one has ever died from eating someone else's sweat, but it makes me queasy to think about it cuz you know somewhere, somehow, you've eaten some sweat before. All that heat and steam. yuck.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001



oh man, eating sweat? the man I live w/ is a butcher. a good butcher at a great market. and he has told me that when you're working at cutting meat, you sweat into it. it has so grossed me out that we have been eating vegetarian for months now. I also know a cook at Hardee's, where they make 'homemade' bicuits, and he told me that when he rolls out the dough, and is breathing heavy thru his mouth, he has drooled into it. yum yum

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Sweat and drool. Fuck. That was funny but it's makin' my stomach turn. So much for golden flaky crusted tender on the inside biscuits from a fast food chain.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Never, never, ever, ever order something with the word "meat" in it... Want meat? Order a steak.

No meat pies, meat loafs, meat surprise, meat soup, meat dish, meat souffle, variety o' meats, meat skillet, or chorizo surprise... and never eat at a restaurant with meat in the name such as "Meat n' Mo'". You guys are just asking for trouble.

While we're on the subject of givin shout-outs to our fav restaurants, the best, and brother I mean the BEST chinese food is at Chef Chu's in Los Altos (south of Palo Alto) on El Camino Real and San Antonio Blvd. Big red building can't miss it (not a chain). It is worth a trip from Sacramento, let alone anywhere in the Bay Area, I guarantee it! Oh yeah, and Pizza Chicago (yes, a chain) rocks too.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


I can't believe "the economy" is the reason for chain restaurants in the US. My husband and I have a pact that Friday nights, we eat out, and we go to a new restaurant - it's our "date night". So far, we haven't eaten in all the restaurants on our block - there's thai, balkan, japanese, vietnamese, cambodian, italian, indian, portuguese, and spanish restaurants, just off the top of my head, and also something which attempts to be an american diner ("rockefeller's")

With all that, I cannot, cannot imagine choosing the blandness of a Chili's or a Sizzler's (and, yes, I've eaten at a number of chain restaurants in the States. When in Rome, and all that).

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001


Anna,

The question is where do you live? Like I said, I never eat at chain restaurants here, but in my hometown there is one diner, a couple pizza places, one breakfast-only place open until 2 p.m. and everything else is a chain.

I've been to a ton of small towns where there simply aren't that many restaurants.

I think the comment about the "experience" you have to draw upon with a franchise is true too. I mean basically you don't need to know anything except how to write a check and you can set up a restaurant with a menu, trained staff, decorations, a marketing campaign on TV, print, radio, and billboards, nicely designed menus, etc.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001



David, I'm in Sydney, Australia, which although being the biggest Australian city, has to be viewed in context as the "biggest city in a country which has the population of greater LA". Sydney's population, I think, is about 4m.

And, yes, I do live in the heart of inner-city cafe-lifestyle gayboy caffe latte urban mucho smootho thingie. But I could not name where the nearest "chain" restaurant is - unless you count McDonald's, which is ubiquitous, here. We were in Melbourne (second largest city) last weekend, and found a restaurant called "TGI Friday's" which, my husband tells me, is *exactly* like the similarly/exactly named US chain. That's the only one I know, and it's 1400 km away.

I spent some time this evening discussing this very thread with my husband (in the aforesaid spanish restaurant, eating paella with prawns, mussels, pipis, calamari and two types of crab, salad, bread, and wine, for two - price, $100 AU - about $55 US).

He says that he (an American, born in LA, lived in Sacramento via Europe) feels that Americans are, food-wise, inward looking, while Australians tend to go for breadth of experience over safety. *shrug* myself, I go for taste.

My sister lives in a town of 600, and yes, there the food is bad. But it's not institutional bad. It's its own kind of bad. What I hate about small-town American food is that you can only choose a particular type of bad, such as Chevy's bad, or McDonald's bad.

Here's an idea of what's available.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001


Well, this one's a no-brainer for me. Unless we are (a) eating with my husband's grandfather, who likes consistency in the form of either the local Eastern European deli or the chain California Pizza Kitchen, or (b) on a long road trip in the middle of nowhere in the US of A, it's always a local, never a chain. This is ridiculously easy now that we live in Europe, but wasn't hard in the US, either. Given the choice between franchise-land and eating at home, I'll eat at home. When I was a child living in the middle of nowhere, we ate out once a month when we went to the big city. This was, my mother tells me, a money-saving option.

I find myself feeling a lot more trusting about cleanliness when the proprietor really gives a damn about their own personal restaurant than when it's McDo or its equivalent hiring high school students who really could not possibly care less.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001


"In Davis? You *are* kidding right? There's a ton of non-chain restaurants there, and tons of non-chain or small chain pizza places (by small chain I mean a local place that's branched out over the years, but not to a national saturation level like Chilis)."

I counted small chains and places that have branched out into at least another location as a chain, sorry. (And I only said that about pizza restaurants, not other kinds of restaurants.) By that definition I rule out Lamppost. Woodstocks IS a chain, they have restaurants in at least three other college towns. I don't count Caffe Italia and Symposium as pizza joints because pizza isn't the majority of what they offer (yes, I may be picky here). I have no idea what a Cenarios is, so I'll give you that one. And I hardly ever get to Sacramento, much less to go eat pizza.

No, I don't get out much. I've had too much homework in the last year to venture beyond the UCD dye lab *sigh*

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001


Anna, I must concur with what you said. I live in Melbourne and the only chain restaurant I have ever seen is the Lone Star which is apparently meant to be some Texan steak place.

I went to chain places a few times when I lived in Canada (Lone Star, Outback, couple others that I forget) and while the food is generally decent it's also typically the same no matter what chain you goto and not very exciting. When I went to the Outback I thought it was amusing trying to decipher the supposedly Australian words on the menu. I never knew we said such things.

I love the variety of trying a new place to eat. The atmosphere is as important as the food and chains suck when it comes to atmosphere in my opinion. With so many restaurants in Melbourne to eat it would seem like a crime to go to the same old place each time.

Although I do find myself eating at Ito's quite often (122 Bourke Street for anyone wanting deeelicious Japanese food! mmmm, mmmm).

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001


You kiddin' me Ashley? Don't Aussies walk around yelling "bloomin' onion" and "reckon!" at each other in the same manner Americans use "cocksucker" in rush hour traffic?

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

Rudeboy: You're confusing Australia with East Texas.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

The Australians here aren't seriously denying that half their country says "reckon" every third word, are they? Because if they do, we'll just call them all liars, I reckon.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001

I don't worry much about cleanliness because a) it just doesn't bother me and b) I assume that even at the fanciest restaurants, they drop your steak on the floor and just put it back onto the plate. Forget Fast Food Nation etc, don't ever talk to someone who's worked at a restaurant if you worry about this stuff.

We never eat at places like Chili's, Applebee's, TGIFriday's, etc. because we don't like the food. I have had okay meals at these places when people at work were choosing a place everyone would like, but the food was nothing special. I don't see the appeal of such places, but I think a lot of people prefer sort of bland food (I know a surprising number of people who won't eat any kind of Asian food because it's "too spicy" or "it might be dog meat"). A lot of people seem to need to eat someplace where they know what will be on the menu (sometimes comforting if you're travelling.) I guess some of the appeal is that you can take kids to these places, which isn't my problem.

I eat at Burger King when I have the urge for a hamburger. I like their food.

There are several local chains where we often eat - there's a good seafood place, a great Thai place, and a good Italian place that all have three or so locations. We're in the Silicon Valley and there is great Asian food of every kind. We eat more Asian that anything else, which I guess is one reason we don't eat at chains very much. (There's a local chain called Mr Chau's but I hear they are vile.) And yeah, Chef Chu's is good but we have closer places we think are better. We try to go to new places, though we keep going back to our favorites. When we moved to this area, we tried all of the nearby pizza places and settled on the one that's the best. There are plenty of non-chain pizzarias around here.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001


Just to set the record straight, there is *no such thing* on these shores as a "bloomin' onion". And the next person on my travels who tells me that they "know all about Australian food" and "love bloomin' onions" will get kneecapped.

"Reckon", however, is used - although not, rudeboy, in the same manner as "cocksucker". At least not by me. It'd be a cold day in hell before that happend, I reckon.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001


If you ever get the chance to compare meunus from the Outback Steakhouse and the Lonestar Steakhouse, do it. These chains are so obviously owned by the same company. The menus are remarkably similar, both in terms of what's to eat and in design. It's amazing how inauthentic both places are. The Lonestar serves things like lamb and pumpkin soup, while the Outback has something on the menu called "Walkabout Soup", listed as an Australian favourite. I have no idea what they're talking about.

When I was in the US last year, my friend made me go to an Outback Steakhouse, just so he could get me to make fun of everything that was wrong with it. The first thing I noticed, there was a stuffed Kiwi bird inside the front door. That'd be the national bird of New Zealand, guys.

And if someone could please tell me what the hell a bloomin' onion is, I'd be very grateful.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001


Those bloomin onions have nothing to do with Australia, but goddam they are tasty things. Actually, both Outback and Lonestar are two places I could happily go regularly for a huge slab of steak. That's also why I am glad they are not here. Too unhealthy to eat often and mmmmm,mmmm, what's better than a 22 ounce steak? (Apart from a 30 ounce steak).

On the reckon thing, I never really hear people say that. But people don't seem to say "mate" or "no worries" much anymore either which is a bit depressing.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001


Ahh, there's nothing better than a bowl of Walkabout Soup, is there Ashley?

(now if I just knew wtf "walkabout soup" is).

I suppose this is how greeks and lebanese and italians feel when they eat "their" food bastardised by other countries. They look at it with expressions of faint wonderment and, occaisionally, fear.

And I know LOTS of people who say "reckon" and "mate" and "no worries", but they all live in the country, so that might explain it, mate, I reckon. No worries.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001


What's interesting about America and chains and food styles I think, is that as a "melting pot nation" we actually so -many- kinds of cuisine available.

Even in the middle of nowheresville Arkansas, my husband has found kickass Indian food, though he -is- getting rather tired of steak and potatoes after a full month out yonder.

But how despite the availability, so many folks seem to be "afraid" to try food.

I went through a phase of this when I was younger -- I hated having icky tasts in my mouth and was very very skittish of new things.

I grew out of it though, and now one of my favorite things to do is either experiment in a new restaurant or experiment with new ingredients to make food at home.

I wonder how to reconcile the popularity of cooking shows, and the rise of food show 'chef stars' and things like 'Iron Chef' (albeit imported from Japan) with the supposed culinary temerity of the American populace.

An interesting conundrum.

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2001


I live in Beaumont, Texas and we have too many chain restaurant. I work for a local gourmet burger chain, we do well, our sister company Jason's Deli is growing fast. The muffalettas and other sandwiches, salad bar, and the stuffed spuds are driving the growth. At Novrozsky's we serve similar items as Chili's, but in a fast-casual format. So, being around burgers, salads, and fried apps, I get bored with restaurants in our town. We all copy menus from each other, Applebee's, Chili's, Cheddar's, Blackeyed Pea, etc. all serve the basic core menu that customers expect, but why change the menu when the current does just fine, inventoring new products, have staff learn new procedures, etc. are reasons that menus remain static, but the number one reason is customers do not like much change.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

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