Why We Eat Out

Why do we eat out? I was inspired to write this article after reading a post from one of my favorite blogs called Whipped. Caroline had a dining experience that was over the moon because of the ridiculously good service; from the valet to the host, waiter and ending with the bus boy smiling as she and her hubby walked out the door. Could they have fluffed her pillow before she took her avo nap? I think yes! Sounds like a United ad…Of course quality of food and cost is an issue but the service is what really drives a restaurant’s experience!

A couple of weeks ago Molly, Molly’s father, Jim, and I went to a high end restaurant for dinner…(and the reason that I’m not giving names is because it was a random experience at a consistently good place)…. We were greeted at the door with warmth and promptly seated but the experience took a quick down turn when our waiter arrived with an unhealthy sniffle and upside down smile. It was apparent that she wasn’t 100 percent “on” that night and subsequently didn’t give us the spark that was needed at such a glorious place. The food while still being delicious fell flat for me because of the ho-hum delivery. I wanted to whisked away on a magic carpet ride; I expected the world to rotate around ME! and when you’re spending $100 a head this is what you expect, right? Caroline had eggs and pastries and I had magnificently prepared abalone and squab dishes… her experience topped mine? why?? simply because all of her planets were in alignment and my sun had an eclipse that night. bummer!

Now some of you might disagree, some of you might be OK with poor service if the food is good. The other side to consider is that not all of our dining experiences cost over $50 per person.. what about the burrito joint? or the crab shack? yup, it would be nice if the counter person had a big toothy smile and a cheery hello but we only are looking for some good simple nourishment when we patronize these places. hmmmm, I think I’ll cover cheap eats in an up-coming post.. so stay tuned..

At the end of the day eating out is both social and experimental. so just do it and get er done out there on the Flavor Highway..

The image from above is from a new space in our neighborhood called Serpentine and it has all the pistons firing while driving down flavor highway. Environment, food and especially SERVICE.

Eat much and laugh out loud!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 11:38 am and is filed under Food Experiences . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.