I am beginning to have a foot in two camps, a social media
shoe (or clog) on Facebook (realizing that it is now kind of antiquated in that
fast moving world of snapgram, instachat, at so on). The other hoof is still in this, my first love, the
Bottom Feeder. While the FB side allows
me to instantly share food and scenery pictures, it does not allow my
ramblings which are better suited for this outlet. (which i took advantage of today!)
So recently, I published a couple of pictures of food from Cracker
Barrel in Facebook, and to my immense pleasure I got a lot of comments about “have
you lost your mind?; Did you hit your head?” and so on. It tells me that people are aware of my
dedicated avoidance of “chain restaurants” and how I go out of my way to not give them my business.
Without diving into a deep rabbit hole, my principal reason for
this (as has been stated before) positions is to support independent
restaurants whenever possible and keep my money within the community. To be sure, “chains” do provide employment
for local residents, pay taxes, and in that sense do help the local
economy. Plus, some of them are willing
to support non profits with gift certificates, sometimes food, and so on. However, they do not “buy local”, and most of
their ingredients arrive in Sysco (or equivalent) trucks from wherever, some of
the dishes arrive frozen, and it is left to the kitchen to construct a dish
exactly as required by “corporate” allowing no room for innovation or
creativity. If you order Shrimp Scampi
from our Lexington Park Olive Garden, presumably you would get the same dish in
Ohio, New Mexico, Florida, and so on. It
is this consistency that some people enjoy, especially when traveling. I would never expect to find “veal osso bucco ragout with crispy
fingerling potatoes, picholine olives, kale, piquillo peppers, and red wine
braising jus” such as I enjoyed at La Rive Breton the other night. (okay, pushing it a bit, but you get the
idea). So, on we go….
By way of explanation my appearance in a chain(s) recently can
be explained thusly: The cracker barrel
experience arose from a gracious gift card given to MFO; one of the local civic
associations I belong to decided to have a committee meeting in the Olive
Garden; and lastly we took a run up to Nordstrom’s in Annapolis Mall last week
to exchange some Christmas gifts for a (sorry) larger size.
Barrel of Crackers
I’m sure some readers have been in a CB establishment, and for
whatever reason I have been in the past, and found that not only is the food “formula” so
is the whole building and layout. Side
note, as you travel about the country and happen upon this franchise, see if
the parking lot nearest the thoroughfare I always jammed. I have always speculated that this was staff,
and they do this to appear full of customers.
Anyway, you walk into the place, and Surprise! you find yourself in the “gift shop”
And to get to the “stand” you have to cross the room
diagonally past as many displays as possible.
Not random methinks. Anyway, you
report to the stand that you have two for (lunch) and are asked if you want
regular or (Served all Day) Breakfast Menus, and then ushered into the
(considerable) dining space.
Decorated with “stuff” that does reflect the local area.
Hardly had we sat down before we were approached by <….> announcing that she was <….> and would be our server, and were we ready to order. Um, no, we haven’t even opened the menu. She seemed satisfied with accepting a request for water and unsweetened tea. Turning again to business, I found the menu rather difficult to navigate, it’s a large
trifold affair and I had to hunt for what I thought served as a lunch menu (on
the same page headed by daily dinner features), finally locating sandwiches
As we navigated the menu, she arrived a short time later with the
glasses, again asked if we were ready to order.
Not quite, yet… “Take your time”.
Which, it turned out to be about three minutes, so we caved and I got the
Reuben Platter, and MFO got a breakfast dish of some kind.
Somehow, it was so loud in there despite not being overly
crowded that it was, in Mr. Sietsema’s terms: Conversation is difficult. A lot of the servers seemed to know a lot of
the customers. At any rate the food
arrived
(those are apples, biscuits with grits and country gravy,
sausage and over easy eggs)
Oh, a quick side note on the “sides” (get it?) when I ordered, I was asked what sides I wanted with my
sandwich (if not fries) and was guided to another page on the menu with quite a list and I chose
Slaw. You might note that besides my
side there was a cup of same, the server saw no humor in that.
The food was quite good, my Reuben was properly greasy and
melted, and the meat had some taste. MFO’s
eggs were nicely cooked for over easy.
About two thirds through the food we were asked if there was
anything else she could get us. No,
thank you. Check arrived soon
thereafter.. Not being a regular I observed that to leave a tip meant you had
to leave cash on the table, as you were required to pay at the desk which,
believe it or not, was IN the gift shop!! which you again had to traverse to leave. Just sayin... are you selling food or merchandise?
Anyway, it was an interesting experience and the Feeder was grateful
to have the gift card as a reason to investigate the place. I did.
Garden of Olives
We’ve all been there for one reason or another, don’t need
much comment from me. Our meeting group
which eventually swelled to about 12 was seated at pushed together tables in kind of an
alcove out of the way of the main traffic lane.
Two servers were assigned that had names, but I forget how they were
communicated. New since the last time I
was there (for same reason I think was the addition of this little device on
the table
Which I didn’t fiddle with much. Not sure if you could order or not, it wasn’t
explained while I was there. However, the laminated menu was as I remembered
Same (consistently) never ending salad bowl (with never ending bread sticks
peeking in upper left) and they were as insipid as i remembered
Some ordered food, but since the meeting was billed as only
an hour (actually 1.5) I only ordered an appetizer, Fried Mozzarella
Which was probably as filling as something more
substantial.. they were hot and crunchy.
All in all, others liked their food, so the OG achieved
their objective. Service remained
friendly and they didn’t balk when asked for separate checks. Still not sure about the little screen
thingy. There were many families enjoying themselves and food which is good. The Olive Garden is, well, the
Olive Garden.
Cheese Cake anyone?
We of course arrived at Nordstrom’s Annapolis just in time to learn
that the person we wanted to see was at lunch so we decided to go for a bite
ourselves. Time, distance, and DFD
considerations eliminated Harry Browne’s so we decided to try nearby
Without trying to make an already long document longer (which I guess i did),
within the range of “chains” there are various levels, from fast food (McDonald's,
Burger King, etc.) now called “quick service”, then up to the Olive Garden,
Texas Road House, Outback, etc., and at the top are those places that are part
of a “group” like Landry’s who owns individual properties with unique names
like Landry's Seafood, Chart House, Saltgrass Steak House, Bubba Gump Shrimp
Co., Claim Jumper, Morton's The Steakhouse, McCormick & Schmick's, Mastro's
Restaurants and Rainforest Café, which tend to cross over into “fine dining”.
Somewhere in the fuzzy area, there are unique places like The
Cheesecake Factory, which while it has (mostly) one brand, it has 185 full-service dining restaurants: 165 under The
Cheesecake Factory brand, 11 under the Grand Lux Cafe brand and one under the
RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen brand. It
was founded in Detroit by Evelyn Overton in the Forties, Evelyn found a
recipe in the local newspaper that would inspire her “Original” Cheesecake.
Everyone loved her recipe so much that in the late '50's she decided to open a small Cheesecake
shop but she eventually gave up her dream of owning her own business in order
to raise her two small children, David and Renee. She moved her baking equipment
to a kitchen in her basement and continued to supply cakes to several of the
best restaurants in town while raising her family. In 1972, Oscar and Evelyn Overton moved to
the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles where they opened a wholesale bakery, in
which they produced cheesecakes and other desserts for local restaurants. And, as they say, the rest.... kind of an interesting story..
Have been to a
few CF's over the years, they kind of go in for large places with fancy décor..
We checked in
with the desk lady, and since we didn’t require a booth, we were seated immediately
at a two top along a low partition separating a section of the restaurant, and
handed a spiral bound menu that had (I counted) over 18 pages. A one menu does all, you kind of had to hunt
for lunch options. (I’ll call him) “Matt”
came and said he would be taking care of us, did we want something to
drink. Well, yes, driver MFO wanted tea, and I wanted a glass of a Kendall Jackson Chard of some
sort. An enthused: “right away!” and disappeared. A minion brought MFO’s tea, and no vino. Time passed, Matt appeared again and took our
order
(they should pay YOU for the sweet potato fries)
for me, and MFO ordered a
Guacamole salad.
The place, while
not terribly full seemed to have an energy about it, all the staff seemed to “hustle”
most of the time. I did notice that many tables remained “un-bussed” for a while. At another table a request for a fresh fork received the same urgency as did my wine.
I got my sandwich with mushroom soup and upsaled Caesar salad. The soup was good, the sandwich’s “guts”
were rolled up and placed between the bread.
Salad was also good.
MFO’s salad
turned out to be one of those “everything but the sink” things, radishes, nuts,
dried this and that, greens with all the dressing pooled at the bottom… Matt whizzed by a few times “checking”.
We finally left, satisfied, but not enjoyed, I guess I would
go again given the other (lunch) options within the mall. Sorry Evelyn.
We found our lady who manage's the “men’s furnishings” department of
Nordstrom's and received her normal good service. Got it, Mr. Moody, I'll take care of it. Boom.
(While we have always had a good relationship, I did have a reader
report of a less than pleasurable experience there).
So, driven to chains, I can’t say I would change my resolve
to avoid them whenever possible, acknowledging that not all independent
restaurants are excellent either, but I would rather spend my money there and
either return or not..
Whew, sorry for the length.
DF(Independent)D
No comments:
Post a Comment