Today is Australia day and the official grand opening of Pie Face, the new midtown meat pie shop. Read more about it on Serious Eats. There are freebies to be had if you're in the area!
About
The Scoop
In fourth grade someone got the bright idea of cutting lunch to an outrageous 15 minutes (as if going to a year-round school without a cafeteria wasn't enough--we ate at our desks and were served by mobile carts in the hall). To get the slow eaters (me) up to speed, our teachers implemented a charming little policy called "Shovel Time."
The first nine minutes would pass normally. Then as the tenth approached, Miss Stauffer (a feathered-haired gal who drove a Camaro and loved Little River Band) would yell, "Do you know what time it is?!" The class would manically shriek back, "SHOVEL TIME!!!" Talking was absolutely forbidden the final five minutes—it was a deathly silent scarf fest.
I don't know if I've ever been the same since. But as a nod to this classy ritual, I've adopted the humble scooping implement as my rating system's icon. Shovel on!
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1 Shovel=Passing Fancy
2 Shovels=Puppy Love
3 Shovels=Crippling Crush
4 Shovels=Serious Stalking
Picture This
Nordsee
There are so many un-American things about Nordsee, the German fast food chain (though its mascot is very Spongebob). I can't see a fish restaurant not exclusively devoted to the battered and fried doing so well. Plus, real plates, glasses, and beer in a mall food court?
To be fair, there are plenty of fried options at Nordsee; the woman in line ahead of me was getting a very Brooklyn Chinese takeout combo of fried shrimp and fries. I was trying to not fill up so I could squeeze in a second lunch later, hence the petite sweet-and-sourish pickled herring, cucumber, and onions on a roll. I would totally buy this instead of those sad still-hungry-afterward half-baguette sandwiches from Pret a Manger that I occasionally get sucked into ordering.
More American was Papa Asada, the Tex-Mex restaurant, selling something that looked suspiciously like a Crunchwrap. In fact, it was called a Crunchwrap. It's also suspiciously absent from its website. Perhaps Taco Bell should look into a German expansion.
Nordsee * ALEXA, Am Alexanderplatz Grunerstraße 20, Berlin, Germany
Where Pesto Has Failed to Infiltrate
So so much to be gleaned from this WSJ article on the quirks of chain restaurant diners (none terribly surprising, but still) plus it managed to use both palate and palette (correctly) a feat as enjoyable as when a character in a movie says the name of the movie.
Olive Garden eaters are turned off by the saltiness of capers and the er, greenness of pesto (I thought that condiment went mainstream around 1990, along with sun-dried tomatoes and hummus--the latter currently being tested at T.G.I. Friday’s), won’t eat pears and Gorgonzola or gnocchi, refuse to part with that frosted salad bowl from another era (that era when pesto became a part of the American diet), and love cheese and chicken more than life itself. Pretty much they’re the worst people on earth.
Applebee’s and T.G.I. Friday’s customers are wilder because they’ll eat okra, ahi tuna and hard boiled eggs cut into wedges. Romano’s Macaroni Grill diners are rich and less scared of Italian food. Why have I not been there yet?
Despite the lowest common denominator approaches employed, the brands are not unaware that more adventurous diners are turned off by the chain staples.
"'We always have to be careful to not always offer cheesy, chickeny things and pastay things,' because such dishes might push away customers with more advanced palates, says John Caron, president of Olive Garden."
As a result, Olive Gardens offers a non-fried, pasta-less, cheese-free bouillabaisse-type seafood dish that costs more than average ($16.25, which I’m sure is not the NYC price--ok, it's $23. 95 in Times Square, which is why chains are best experienced in their natural habitats) and that no one orders. The brodetto is for advanced palates only.
Planet Hollywood, Thinly Disguised
While I should be excited about Demi Monde, a real cocktail bar, opening kitty-corner from my office, my curiosity was also peaked by reports (ok, my boyfriend who also works in the neighborhood) of a new food court bar.
And indeed, Earl’s Court, home to a Billy’s Bakery, The Original SoupMan, and Earl of Sandwich, does have a lounge: Libations 101. Soothingly generic with sparsely populated communal tables, mostly $7.50 drinks, and happy hour specials, it’s not any worse than the ubiquitous Irish pubs that make up the majority of nearby drinking options.
There was something distinctly chain-y, or possibly Asian mall and/or hotel-ish about the curtained-off room (the food court isn’t open for dinner) and I was proven semi-correct when the bill for my two blue cheese-stuffed-olive martinis was dropped off. Planet Hollywood!
I should’ve known. The Earl of the court and of the sandwich, happens to be restaurateur Robert Earl. Per last month’s press release: "As the public's taste in food court offerings evolves beyond burgers and reheated pizza we have created a modern alternative with a diverse array of progressive and innovative eateries. There is no place I would rather debut our first Earl's Court than New York City."
Mostly I liked that despite the inoffensive electronic music lending the Asian mall/hotel vibe, that in the bathroom the Bosom Buddies theme song, a.k.a. Billy Joel's "My Life" was loudly playing. Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone...
Faster, Casualer
Three’s always a trend, right? Chains, some already downscale, appear to be downscaling further.
Already fast-casual Pei Wei Asia Bistro has created a new brand Pei Wei Asian Market that has eliminated table service and real plates and created cheap combos. In other words, the suburbs now have an equivalent to the ubiquitous Chinese takeout New Yorkers take for granted.
Sit-down Red Robin is opening Red Robin Burger Works, a fast casual concept that could work in non-traditional locations and “urban environments” where the brand is currently absent. Denver will be the test site.
IHOP is taking the same route with IHOP Express. The first location recently opened in San Diego. Thankfully, the Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity will still be offered on the abbreviated menu.
Photo credit: DannyMaxon.com
Feline Good in the Neighborhood
I love cats and bathroom humor (not crazy about cleaning cat crap off the floor daily) and I don’t hate Applebee’s, but I’m not sure if a QR code-triggered cat talking about pooping will distract hungry lunchers during the 14-minute-or-less wait promised by the company.
Or is that 14 minutes for the entire lunch? I never eat my food fast enough for servers who always bring my entrée when I’ve barely taken a bite of any appetizers.
I’ll take TableCat over the rapping office workers, though.
Chain Links: India is Young and Young People Like to Eat
Fast food appeals to India's vast under-30 population, and it's not all Maharaja Macs and paneer pizza. Homegrown chains like Kaati Zone and Jumbo King (I love those fried potato burgers) are stepping up.
Young people in India (the 50% under 30 stat is cited yet again) also love coffee. Dunkin' Donuts wants a piece of that.
Some Indians, though, are eating at the opposite end of the spectrum. New Delhi's Le Cirque opened in August and has had to accommodate restrictions like Jains' onion and garlic-free diet. Luckily, pasta pirmavera, a Le Cirque invention, is already vegetarian.
Tony Roma’s is one of those Kenny Rogers Roasters-esque restaurants that flounders here but persists abroad. Bangkok and Jakarta now have more American ribs. And so does LA...in a cross-cultural twist, the new Tony Roma’s in Torrance is paired with Capricciosa Italian Restaurant, a Japan-Italian chain. (Both are ran by the same Singapore-based holding company, Mas Millennium.)
Not all American chains are having the same good fortune as KFC or McDonald’s in China. Applebee’s, Outback Steakhouse, and California Pizza Kitchen have all had to close down branches in Shanghai and Beijing. American businessman, Scott Minoie, has took a different approach and opened a chain of restaurants in China called Element Fresh with no US springboard. He’s been looking to local successes like Hai Di Lao and South Beauty (um, that Sichuan chain is way fancier than Outback or Applebee’s) for inspiration.
Vada pav photo from Jumbo King
Red Robin
3/4 Like people, some restaurants engender warm feelings while others leave you empty and alone. It’s that nebulous just-right essence I seek out in chain restaurants and only occasionally become properly enveloped in. My two experiences with Red Robin have not provided this soothing joy.
Maybe it’s just the South Plainfield location where my last experience with the chain three years ao also occurred, but stepping foot inside is like entering a baby house of the past (or maybe a baby house of the present, but I haven’t spent any significant time around young children in decades), dried spit-up, rusty shag-carpeted ranch houses with unexplained wet patches and greasy surfaces with high e coli potential where graham crackers are called cookies and squares of unfrosted sheet cake are served underbaked with damp, floury bottoms, suspect places where as a grade-schooler I might be dropped off in the name of day care.
The food is fine (despite my two nemeses, melon and bottomless steak fries, being the sides of choice) for the genre.
My only intent was to try the limited edition Oktoberfest burger, which turned out to be kind of pleasing as a pretzel sandwich. The sweetish, burnished bun was the main attraction; flavors of caramelized onions and stone ground mustard predominated. The ham and swiss barely registered while the barely pink (medium is as low as raw as they’ll cook meat, and while irksome, is a step up from Five Guys) fast food-sized hamburger patty didn’t function as a featured ingredient either but more as a beefy condiment. These are big burgers visually.
But the weirdest part of the meal was the margarita. I was once served a margarita with a green olive at an Applebee’s, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that this $5.99 version came with bejeweled ice. This photo wasn’t intended to capture it, though you can see one blue speck on the upper left. The ice had fine, sparse, glitter suspended in the clear cubes. How such a thing occurred, I have no idea (and no explanation or comp was given, though a fresh drink was produced) but it makes one wonder how much messing around goes on behind the scenes.
All of the staff is very, very young, and very, very polite and cheerful. The suburbs are usually good for that, at least.
Red Robin * 6200 Hadley Rd., South Plainfield, NJ
A Friendly Send-Off
Bankruptcy, nostalgia, swan songs…it’s been a rough few weeks for old guard chains.
24/7 Wall St. looks at the ten chain restaurants with the biggest loss of sales over the past ten years. I haven’t heard of at least half of them—Bakers Square? Damon’s?—so maybe they truly are endangered species. 341 comments? That’s a heck of a lot of people misspelling Appelbee’s as Appleby’s.
Restaurant Finance Monitor calls bullshit. Chains as a whole aren’t disappearing—we may lose a Friendly’s or a Sbarro—but we gain a Kona Grill or BJ’s.
Josh Ozersky at Time thinks the death of Friendly’s is bad for America. If the middle class can’t afford to go out for Fribbles anymore, we are in sorry shape. I think the dwindling of these traditional chains is as much about changing tastes as our collective destitution, though.
Unsurprisingly, Mark Bittman is a killjoy about the matter (I just can’t get properly worked up over the occasional foray into “factory food”) even while getting the tiniest bit misty over Friendly’s demise. Why do commenters spell it as Friendlies? And why does Bittman think the chain served fast food (this was already pointed out on Twitter)? It may have been factory food, but table service and menus doesn’t fit the definition.
Friendly’s is totally the squeaky wheel (or maybe it’s the pervasive Northeastern food writing that’s doing the squeaking) but El Torito, the Californian, Americanized Mexican chain with one location in Oregon, declared Chapter 11 too and Gustavo Arellano of ¡Ask a Mexican! fame considers the melted cheese and sour cream blobs a part of history. Parent company, Real Mex Foods, also owns Who Song & Larry’s, which played a far more significant role in my formative years (it’s in here somewhere) than Friendly’s, a place I’d never heard of until I was 25.
Chain Links: Hitting the BRIC Wall
Chains wanting to expand into foreign markets are having a hard time finding executives with the know-how to localize menus and navigate business issues abroad. Sometimes you have to add squid and corn to a pizza or sell beer with your burgers.
There is a sandwich chain called Spicy Pickle, and it will be arriving in Qatar next year. I don’t know what makes ham, cheddar, honey mustard, apple, spinach, and tomato, on grilled marble rye Basque, and don’t expect Doha residents to be any less confused.
I vowed never to speak of Pei Wei again, after last year’s sham of a contest where they chose a finalist who couldn’t use palate properly. But if you find yourself in Mexico City in the near future, craving crab rangoon, your needs will be met.
Did you know there was a Union Square Cafe in Tokyo? I wouldn't be surprised if there were stealth replicas of other notable restaurants stashed around Japan either. I be that their La Grenouille wouldn't trigger Paris Syndrome. (I know many French stereotypes are exaggerated, but even so, I havea million cities I'd rather visit first--I'm currently considering São Paulo, Lima, Istanbul, Los Angeles, and Reykjavik for a post-Thanksgiving jaunt, though I'll probably end up in Montreal like I often do that time of year.)
It seems that everyone wants to break into China, India, and the Middle East, but maybe chains should consider Russia and Colombia too. There was a time, not so long ago, when I did not know what BRIC stood for. Now I'm a better person.
Chili's opened in São Paulo and are serving five different caipirinhas and various dishes showcasing picahna, a popular cut of meat that's equivalent to top sirloin.
McDonald’s in Brazil has the CBO, a.k.a. chicken, bacon, onion sandwich that originated in Europe. Brazil has everything.
Chain Links: Spongebob & Oregon Steak
Budget Travel rounded up fast food chains in foreign countries. Germany’s Nordsee caught my attention, not just for its fresh seafood, but because its mascot bears a passing resemblance to Patrick on Spongebob.
While it could be easily argued that deep-dish pizza, burritos, and Hawaiian cuisine are iconically American, I’m having a hard time associating Oregon with steak. The Oregon Bar & Grill in the Shiodome district does just that, using Oregon beef and wine as a selling point. Does Oregon really have that much cache? The connection appears to be Portland-based McCormick & Schmick’s, which is affiliated with this restaurant in Japan, despite no mention of it on its site.
For all of my fascination with American chain adaptations in the Middle East, one obvious difference never occurred to me. Generally, women and men unless married or close family members don't sit together, requiring separate entrances and seating areas for solo males and families. And tables in the family section must be curtained off (women don’t eat with a veil on) like this example at a Saudi KFC. These are the constraints that the Melting Pot, treated like a date place in the US, has had to work with in Saudi Arabia.
Famous Dave's is opening in Winnepeg.
Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez were spotted eating at an Outback Steakhouse in São Paulo.
In higher end news, the shuttered Tavern on the Green will be reborn as a chain and could spread around the world. Also, Le Cirque has opened a branch in Delhi.
Capital Grille
The lord giveth…and taketh away. I eat at Capital Grille, the Darden-owned steakhouse would feel more appropriate in the downtown of a mid-sized city, and then mere days later discover that Little Lad's, my favorite vegan, Seventh-Day Adventist restaurant hidden in the basement of the same Financial District building, has packed up and moved into a Lower East Side church. I somehow feel responsible for setting this chain of events into motion.
Even though I only work three blocks away, it’s not like dining at Capital Grille crosses my mind with regularity. At lunch its business is drawn from surrounding offices, at night, especially on a Friday, the showier than expected—live band, taxidermy, and a private dining room in a former bank vault—bi-level restaurant was luring tourists hard. Camera in hand, I was certainly pegged as one. Using a 30% off discount from Savored might have not helped my case either (hey, Savored is classy—I do think getting rid of the Village Vines name was a good move). This does not bother me at chains. If there’s one thing they’re good for, it’s serving as Manhattan havens from the food trend obsessed.
And how trendy could a steakhouse from the people behind Olive Garden and Red Lobster be? (To be fair, it’s much higher end brand than their LongHorn Steakhouse.) Meat and seafood is the story.
Chilled oysters (of what provenance, I couldn’t even tell you) and lobster-and-crab cakes with corn relish. I like the lemon wrapped in netting touch.
A medium-rare porterhouse with a good amount of char, fattiness and the slightest bit of funk (which I like). Even as a chain-admirer, I tend to stay away from Outback Steakhouse and its ilk because the beef barely has flavor. This is a real steak with a real steak price ($47) and real calories (980--one oddity of being a chain is that the menu must list them). Truffle oil was in the air, so I acquiesced and shared a cone of parmesan truffle fries (only 30 calories less than the steak).
The bank vault. Capital Grille is not the only restaurant on Broadway with such a feature.
After you’ve been identified as a tourist (this generally only happens when I’m in other countries, and it’s really weird when you’re traveling alone, taking pictures of your food and someone, especially a guy, asks if you want your photo taken and you have to say yes because that seems like the right answer even though you might not like having your picture taken) that the inevitable, “Do you want me to take a picture of you?” question arises. I don’t, because the result is generally horrifying.
If I were a tourist I might be bothered by the amount of garbage piled up across the street.
Capital Grille * 120 Broadway, New York, NY
Have It Your Way
Photo: Brianpbrady/Travelpod
I said no more McDonald’s oddities from foreign countries, not no Burger King knock-offs in China. So, have a gander at KDS, Texas Burger, and Cheese Burger.
A Ban on Bubur Ayam
Photo: A Texan-American Way of Life
I’ll always be a sucker for localized fast food menus in other countries, but I think there needs to be a moratorium on oddities from around the world round-ups. It feels like one pops up every month—and McDonald’s Bubur Ayam always gets a mention. Zagat is just the latest to get involved.
Variations exist on CNNGo, HowStuffWorks, BusinessInsider (ugh, with palettes in the URL), Time, Weird Asia News, Chicago Tribune, Food Network Humor, BuzzFeed, and…ok, you get the idea.
This week, why not read about American vs Mexican breakfast cereal or American snack foods with unusual varieties abroad? Fruit flavored Pringles was a new one to me.
Also, Jarritos, those colorful Mexican sodas in glass bottles, is trying to expand its audience to “18- to 24-year-old, non-Hispanic, trend-setting males.” I noticed Jarritos ads (before I read the New York Times article, so I don't think I was being re-targeted) on The Rumpus a few days ago, which was a surprise. I don’t know if the brand’s target demographic overlaps significantly with the literary site’s readers.
Pretzel Time
Every now and then I stumble upon one of my photos on another site. (Having a Creative Commons license on Flick never used to be an problem—I’m fine with nobody bloggers using photos with credit—but now legit publications like Foodandwine.com, Time Out NY and Esquire are looking for freebies, which I can’t abide much longer. Pro/group blogs like Brooklyn Based, Food Republic and The Kitchn are a gray area.)
But I’ve only once seen the same photo--a basket of pretzel rolls, oddly enough--used twice. I would not mention this at all, except that today’s usage reinforced a mania I experienced over the weekend.
Do you ever see a dish and think “I must have that!” For me, this tends to happen with fast food ads even though I rarely eat fast food. (I tagged along to Sonic on Saturday so James could see if its new Kickin’ Coney matched the elaborate concoction in the commercial. Uh, not really.)
I’m mesmerized by the idea of Red Robin’s new limited edition Oktoberfest Bürger on a pretzel bun. The execution could be lackluster for all I know (I’m a little distrustful of a chain that offers bottomless steak fries—AYCE, fine, but eh, steak fries are the lowest rung in fry hierarchy.) but the notion of a burger topped with swiss cheese, beer mustard onions and black forest ham is oddly compelling. I have a weird thing for German food (especially considering the above-mentioned pretzel roll photo was taken in Bangkok, not Berlin).
I have until November 6 to decide if it’s worth the 12.5 miles to Clifton, NJ to try this burger in person.
Chain Links: Dubai Does It Again
Nothing surprises me anymore. Texas Roadhouse barely has a presence in the NYC area, and yet the restaurant known for line-dancing servers and freshly baked rolls has opened at The Dubai Mall. I really need to pay a visit to Dubai, it seems. It’s more American than the America I live in.
Bulgogi Brothers (ugh, with the exception of fictional Pollos Hermanos, I hate the word brothers in a title, i.e. Property Brothers, it’s as if a grade-schooler as allowed to be in charge) a Korean bbq chain has opened in the Philippines. Two other Korean operations, Caffe Bene and Bistro Seoul, plan to be in NYC within the next five years.
The East Village’s ChikaLicious Dessert Bar will be opening a branch in Tokyo as well transporting the more casual sibling, Dessert Club, to Hong Kong.
A new terminal has opened in Macedonia’s Alexander the Great airport and it happens to house the country’s first Burger King.
Frisby, the Colombian fried chicken chain, has partnered with Sarku Japan, an American QSR, to bring teriyaki to Pereira, Medellin and Cali. More cities are on the horizon.
Country Chicken, an Australian fried chicken and pizza chain, already has franchises in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, United Emirates, Russia and Fiji. India is next.
Smashburger will be opening in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. I cannot entertain eating at a place called Smashburger because it triggers thoughts of Smash Mouth. And no matter how big the '90s revival becomes, no one needs to hear "All Star" or jesus, "Walkin' on the Sun" ever again.
Niceness Cannot Be Taught
Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta /AP
I suppose that Darden restaurants vowing to cut calories and sodium and not serving fries as a default side to children is a big news. I just view this as an opportunity to post a photo of Michelle Obama at Olive Garden. I mean, we all know that’s an Olive Garden despite the vague caption:
“First Lady Michelle Obama, accompanied by Darden chef Julie Elkinton, second from right, talks to Charisse McElroy, right, and her daughter Jacqueline McElroy, 9, during a Let’s Move! event in one of Darden’s national restaurants in Hyattsville, Md.”
The real news is that the Times Square Applebee’s did $13.5 million in business last year, the highest of all Applebee’s in existence. The New York Times interviews NYC franchisee, Zane Tankel, and he is full of insights about how the city’s Applebee’s differ from the rest of the world. For one, potential hires are kind of horrible here.
“In the New York market it’s hard to find people with good attitudes, so we try and hire by personality. We can teach you to cook, to make a drink, to be a server, but we can’t teach you how to be nice.”
Also, he went rogue and added karaoke at the Staten Island location even though it violates corporate policy.
Adweek reports that chains are trying to attract a more discriminating customer, but ad campaigns aren't cutting it. Apparently, there a something called "wet meat" advertising--and it's not a good thing. Dry meat=upscale?
Chain Links: The Gambler
The New York Times is pokier with its fall dining coverage than other outlets, but it contains some good details, particularly in the article on foreign imports, a bona fide trend. I’d forgotten about insanely opulent Café Pushkin from Moscow--so over the top it’s really a theme restaurant--and knew nothing about Naples’ Fratelli la Bufala. And before my time (in the city, not living) there were foreign chains that bombed: “Lenôtre from Paris in the 1970s, the art-deco Altri Tempi from Italy in the 1980s, and the stylish Eldorado Petit from Barcelona in the 1990s.” The latter served Catalonian food, a novelty at the time. Now we’re looking to Asturias.
Kenny Rogers Roasters is a prime example of the US fast food brands that fizzled out here, but thrive abroad. I'm still baffled by the dish called Reuben James (above) I spied on the menu in Singapore.
Quebec is a testing ground for Canadian chains looking to expand—regionally and internationally. Yeh! Yogourt will be in Boston and Albany soon, and Liquid Nutrition, La Popessa, Sac Wich and Pasta Tutti Giorni may all follow suit.
Quiznos just opened its first location in India and is delving into localization. Aloo Corn Spinach Tikki Sub, Lamb Seekh Sub and the Chicken or Veg Manchurian Subs are just a few additions for Hyderabad.
Panda Express just opened its first Mexican branch.
There is a restaurant in the Bahamas called Bamboo Shack, and it may be franchised in the US.
Fall is Full of International Intrigue
Fall previews don’t really have much of a place here (though I’m still quite stoked about the Bahama Breeze opening October in Woodbridge) but this year my attention has been peaked by the number of foreign chains—many high-end—that have decided to open in NYC.
One hesitates to equate an establishment with a $125 tasting menu involving fried grasshoppers and a “cucumber cloud” with say, a joint serving spaghetti teeming with hot dog weiners, but to me if a restaurant is using the same name and concept here as in its country of origin, it’s a chain. And I want to embrace them all.
La Mar Cebicheria Peruana
Peruvian cuisine has been touted as the next big thing for some time, but up until now we’ve made do with regional chain, Pio Pio (while researching a trip to Charlotte next weekend, I discovered there’s a branch there and in Orlando—who knew?) and their massive matador combo. Soon we’ll have celebrity chef Gastón Acurio’s ceviche-centric outpost in the former Tabla space. We’re a little late to the game; there are already six La Mar locations in Latin America and one in San Francisco. The most cross-cultural item I see on the Lima menu is a cocktail called the cholopolitan (Pisco acholado, cranberry, lima-limón, cointreau, toque de maracuyá). Will the Peruvian cosmo make it to NYC?
Al Mayass
This Armenian-Lebanese chain with locations in Kuwait, Beirut and Riyadh signed a lease in the Flatiron District over year ago. It looks like it will finally be opening. I'm curious about the cherry kebabs.
Ladurée
I tend not to get caught up in things like cupcakes, frozen yogurt and yes, macarons. Such a strange fetish lady food bloggers seem to have with these little rainbow-hued almond flour cookies. They are certainly pretty, and I was hardly immune to the power of a giant blue specimen at Bouchon Bakery. I also recognize that Ladurée is the shit, hence the venerable patisserie's 1pm grand opening tomorrow is understandably a big deal. I do wonder how it will go down since there will be no public transportation after noon. Also, I take back any cynicism I had—these religieuses are freaking beautiful. I might brave a hurricane for these.
Aamann
I’d nearly forgotten about this Danish smørrebrød chain coming to Tribeca. I’m picturing a Pret a Manger meets Le Pain Quotidien affair with more herring, nettles, sorrel and rye. Probably no sea buckthorn or reindeer blood, I imagine. Promotional photos promise something very bento.
Taka Taka
I just mentioned this Mexican sushi chain earlier this week and now I’m going to again. This one’s a doozy because it’s exporting an imported cuisine—and presenting it on a conveyor belt! We haven’t had kaiten sushi since Singaporean Sakae Sushi departed in 2009. Also, if YO! Sushi finally gets it together, we’ll have two and all will be right in the world.
Jung Sik Dang
This one was totally new to me. And yes, this high end South Korean restaurant is the grasshopper-serving culprit, and will also be in Tribeca, taking Chanterelle’s old spot. I’m all for modern cuisine and chef Jung Sik Yim has cooked at Bouley and Aquavit in NYC as well as Akelare in San Sebastián, so he might know what he’s doing. “Picking your Salads” seems far more appealing than a Korean deli salad bar (and I frequent them all the time).
Photos: Living in Peru, La Tartine Gourmande, Aamanns, Jinhwa-FICATION
Chain Links: Empire (of the Sun) Boardwalk
I don’t normally look to Mex and the City for chain restaurant news (usually, it’s more of a source for I wish I could get away with wearing 4” serape-esque heels notions) but today I learned of Moshi Moshi, a Mexican conveyor belt sushi chain that will be opening an offshoot in lower Manhattan. Named Taka Taka, the concept is described as “Mexican sushi & Japanese tacos.” My one experience with sushi in Mexico City introduced me to their inclusion of cream cheese on just about every roll, so this could prove interesting.
I’m also excited for the impending midtown Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf even though it’s technically Californian and I’m never in midtown. I say technically because I had never encountered one until I started visiting the malls of Southeast Asia, so I always associate it with that part of the world. While I never drink sugary, frosty, whipped cream topped beverages in the US, there’s something about sweating to the point of collapse, then getting blasted with air conditioning while drinking an Iced Blended to revive (the experience is even better if followed by MOS Burger). Plus, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is where I spied Steve Buscemi in Shanghai (pictured above). If it’s good enough for a fellow Brooklyn dweller…
And I guess Firehouse Subs is opening in Puerto Rico, but really who cares about that.
Spanish Sandwich Invasion
As much as I enjoy keeping up with American brands permeating the universe (good luck to Spam positioning itself as luxurious in China) I get most excited about foreign chains staking claims on US soil and attempting to pushing their fast food on us.
The latest venture is Spain’s 100 Montaditos, selling inexpensive 5” sandwiches. Can ingredients like thinly sliced chorizo or blue cheese between crispy rolls compete with five-dollar foot-longs? So metric.
Up until now I was only familiar with chains Pans & Company and Bocatta, which I have patronized in Spain despite the availability of montaditos at most run-of-the-mill tapas bars (above is a typical version, jamon and green pepper, from a random courtyard bar in Bilbao--I stopped by Pans & Company afterward because I needed to use the bathroom and ended up buying another sandwich). So far, the company has one branch in Miami, plans for Union Square and then total US domination. Seriously, 4,000 American restaurants over the next five years is certainly ambitious.
I am particularly interested in how they’ve localized the menu for the US. 100 Montaditos does serve alcohol in Miami, but the cheapest glass of wine is $3.50, inexpensive but not Spain inexpensive, i.e. 1.50 euro ($2.14) a glass. I’m glad to see they’ve also kept the tinto verano (red wine and Sierra Mist). Olives, chips and French fries with dipping sauces are served in both countries as sides while the nachos were dropped for the US.
We also are missing some of the more esoteric of the 100 sandwiches like the sweet and sour pork with Chinese salad, the Mexican one with veal and salsa, those with gulas, a.k.a. baby eels. In exchange, we’ve gained, pulled pork, hummus and sweeter sandwiches employing peanut butter, jam and cream cheese as well as one that contains squares of Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bar. I guess Americans like bbq, candy and mashed chickpeas?
Chains, They Are a Changing
I wasn’t crazy about Patch.com at first—does Brooklyn need more neighborhood-centric obsession?—but I’ve come to love its hyperlocal approach, particularly for towns that wouldn’t otherwise be blogged about. (The Carroll Gardens crime blotter is also fun and is fond of using the word creeps--who knew a woman was knocked to the ground but not robbed on my corner? Also, I'm always shocked at the amount of cash people are carrying when they are mugged. Is it normal to have hundreds of dollars on your person?) Like Woodbridge, NJ where I find myself more often than one might imagine. It’s the epicenter of chains in their natural environment. If you drive (and you’ll need a car) ten miles in any direction, you will find just about every restaurant you’ve ever been deprived of in NYC. An embarassment of riches.
For some unfathomable reason, Woodbridge has not had an Olive Garden. This will soon be rectified, but more importantly the Woodbridge Mall will also be receiving the lesser known Darden brand, Bahama Breeze. Thankfully, Patch has photos of the construction process. I will so be there for the October opening and the mall’s 40th anniversary celebration.
Meanwhile, Wendy’s is getting a makeover and has built a new prototype that includes a lounge area with a fireplace, open kitchen (no chef’s table?) and a Wi-Fi area. And I was so looking forward to a retro re-introduction of those tabletops with the olde-tymey newspaper design.
Do not think that chain revamps don’t play a role in decision-making. Since I get a four-day weekend this Labor Day I have been scheming potential destinations. After a quick skim of the NYT’s travel section, my eyes popped out when I saw the recent, “36 Hours in Bar Harbor, Maine.” I know nothing about the coastal town other than that it was the inspiration for Red Lobster’s new style. Now I feel the need to compare the original with the interpretation. A nine-plus-hour drive, though, it’s probably not happening.
Photo credit: Lorence's Kitchen
Chain Links: America Does Not Yet Run on Dunkin'
Similar to how some Americans cite the arrival of a Thai restaurant to indicate gentrification (I don’t fully agree with this) you know you’re on your way up when your country gets a KFC. Nairobi’s middle class is growing and Galito’s had better watch its back.
All we hear about is drug violence, but that doesn't mean there is no place for Red Lobster, Olive Garden and The Capital Grille in Mexico. Darden's SVP of business development said, "With its growing middle class and strong affinity for American brands, Mexico is an attractive growth market for Darden."
I’m mildly embarrassed that I didn’t know Nestle Toll House Café even existed until I saw one in the flesh at Woodbridge Mall (apparently, I'm stuck in the Famous Amos, Mrs. Fields era). The Middle East is savvier than I and Kuwait will be welcoming one. Dubai already had a branch.
If you live in the Northeast, you might be under the impression that Dunkin’ Donuts dominates everywhere. Not so in Europe where the only presence is in Russia, Germany and Spain (where it’s just Dunkin’ Coffee since rosquilla is used to describe a fried, frosted ring of dough). This will change if Dunkin’ Donuts has its way.
Dunkin’ Donuts also has problems in its own country, and it wants to win over those west of the Mississippi. We had them when I was a youngster, but they’ve since disappeared from the Northwest. (I might be one of the only defenders of The Killing, but when they made a reference to Dunkin’ Donuts I cringed.) Everyone is so indie on the West Coast (not true) that the company will likely have to market to lower income folks who are too poor and/or uneducated to give a shit about coffee varietals and artisanal breakfast pastries (those who abhor chains might enjoy the maple bars, a regional specialty I never knew was regional, at Coco in Portland—it was only one block from my hotel so I could not resist).
And What About P'Zones?
Everyone’s getting back to basics. McDonald’s has expunged McFalafel from its Israel locations and Olive Garden is shying away from “culinary forward” dishes like pear and Gorgonzola salads and concoctions like the made-up-sounding pastachetti that was giving me pause earlier this year. There is no such Italian thing. Same goes for soffatellli.
I assumed rollatini and rollata were also Olive Garden inventions, but it turns out there’s nothing non-traditional…about the words, at least. Lasagna Rollata al Forno is purely R&D-derived.
I’m only surprised that chains don’t invent authentic-seeming-to-English-speakers dishes more often. The only other example I can think of off-hand is Taco Bell’s enchirito. There must be more. Anyone?
Items like chimichangas that have been widely adopted as real don't count.
¡Dairy Queen® para toda ocasión!
Last week a gentleman dressed like Cookie Monster, or rather El Monstruo ComeGalletas, proposed to his girlfriend in a Dairy Queen somewhere in Mexico.
As usual, the most important part of the story has been omitted. Was the ring hidden in something edible or not? They do sell Chips Ahoy ice cream sandwiches, after all.
Chain Links: Blizzards and Ice Storms
Russia is ideal for American fast food. People earn less than in the US, but customers are willing to pay more. A Papa John’s pizza that would cost $14 the US, sells for $21.62 in Moscow. Buffalo chicken, complete with Tabasco, blue cheese and celery has been a best-selling topping.
You can get beer delivered with your Russian Papa John’s, but Starbucks is not making any concessions for regional vices. Smoking is not allowed in their Russian coffee shops, a rarity for the country.
By now we’ve all heard about the fake Apple stores in China, but it doesn’t stop there. Dairy Fairy, which serves an Ice Storm instead of a Blizzard, bears a striking resemblance to Dairy Queen. According to the Wall Street Journal, at least. I don't think it's quite as uncanny as the Ikea copycat.
The real DQ will open in Guatemala in October.
Photo credit: Melissa Powers/Wall Street Journal
Shaken or Stirred?
So, Mexican Martinis, margaritas served with speared green olives and additional beverage left in the shaker, are a thing in Austin?
There's an Applebee's in Union, NJ that also makes such a libation (accidentally, I presumed). You're looking at it.
Chain Links: Burger Barrage
I feel like I should be excited by Steak 'n Shake coming to NYC but I'm not, and it's not an international chain anyway.
Giaffras sounds more like my kind of chain: cute animal mascot, long history, strong branding and fast foodizing a cuisine we don't have much of in the US. The Brazilian steak and burger restaurant just opened in Miami. Please bring your estrogonofes and parmeggianas to NYC.
Pret a Manger is crossing the Chunnel and its name could cause problems in France. How gauche is a restaurant called Ready to Eat Food? Wait till Pink Taco shows up in Paris.
In a northwest to slightly less northwest move, Vancourver B.C.'s Vera's Burger Shack will be opening in Portland's Pearl District. As a crusty old-timer, I couldn't patronize in this so-called Pearl District that didn't exisit in my day. (Reading Eater PDX in preparation for my rare trip back home is blowing my mind with neighborhoods I've never heard of: N. Mississippi, Foster-Powell, Central Eastside Industrial, Alphabet District...what?)
Hardees in Kazakhstan will bring “real, American-style charbroiled burgers to the market.”
I'm not sure what Carl's Jr. will import to Indonesia.
I'm Loving It
There are a lot of dark horses in Technomic’s 50 fastest growing chains (with sales of $25 million to $50 million). I’d never even heard of breastaurant Brick House Tavern + Tap, in the number one spot. And they happen to have one in South Plainfield, right in the section of New Jersey where I run monthly errands. Beer bongs after Target and Costco? I’m serious about this.
Most surprising, though, was Loving Hut, a vegan, mildly culty restaurant I blogged about not so long ago, appearing at number 13. I guess a lot of people dig Supreme Master Ching Hai and/or veggie burgers.
A Fish Story
Even though popular cuisines like Italian, Mexican and Chinese include plenty of fish, you don’t see much of a fish presence on American menus. If we’re going to eat seafood at all, it’s fried and shrimp always trumps fish.
I know that I didn’t eat any seafood beyond Gorton’s frozen, breaded filets growing up and I definitely never ordered fish in a restaurant unless it was at Skipper’s, a long-gone chain similar to Long John Silver’s. I was sort of surprised, though I shouldn’t have been, when on my last visit to the Oregon Coast my mom didn’t want anything to do with the fresh Dungeness crab and giant oysters steamed on the spot. Don’t even think about ceviche. (Then again, on my mom's last visit we ate at so-so neighborhood Ameri-Mex mini-chain Mezcal's, and she was disappointed that there was no seafood burrito like you can find in Portland, so maybe I had her fish-eating habits all wrong.)
- A look at Olive Garden shows that there are a shitload of shellfish-laced pastas, but only two pure fish dishes: herb-grilled salmon and parmesan crusted tilapia. Salmon and tilapia are definitely favored fish. One’s meaty, the other’s cheap.
- Panda Express serves no fish, just fried shrimp while more upscale P.F. Chang’s does fairly well with five of their 13 seafood choices being fish (salmon, mahi mahi and Chilean sea bass, which I thought we weren’t supposed to be eating). The remaining eight feature shrimp.
- Taco bell premiered shrimp burritos and tacos this year, just in time for Lent. Chevy’s has fish tacos that are surprisingly grilled not fried, as tradition dictates. Shrimp also appears on fajitas and in an enchilada along with crab. I always order the seafood enchilada at Chevy’s, which makes it sound like I eat there all the time even though I don’t.
Yet a recent NPD survey shows a different story: grilled, baked, broiled and raw fish makes up 23% of seafood orders, slightly ahead of non-fried shrimp (21%), fried fish (14%) and fried shrimp (13%). Bizarrely, all other seafood—calamari? crab? scallops?—is the largest chunk of all at over one quarter.
Seafood only makes up 6% of all restaurant orders, though. And all those non-fried fish eaters are old and rich. Salmon is what happens when you’re an empty-nester watching your cholesterol.
Chain Links: There's the Beef
Brusque Coney Island customers are making young Beijing recruits at Nathan’s cry.
Wendy's showed up in Moscow with "sexy" girls in pigtails and striped stockings. What would Dave Thomas think? Times have changed since Wendy's was able to use Soviet fashion as a gag.
The Ivy, London’s celebrity-clogged restaurant, recently opened a branch in Dubai. In a mall, of course. Will there be Dover sole? Yes, for 180 AED (approximately $49) which isn’t a horrible deal by NYC standards.
IHOP will be spreading throughout the Middle East. It just won't be the same without bacon and breakfast sausage.
MOS Burger’s test run in Brisbane has gone so well that the Japanese company thinks it can expand into the US, Canada and Europe. Do keep in mind that Hawaii has already seen MOS Burger come and go.
Photo: Igor Tabakov/Moscow Times
Striking the Balance Between Fancy and Too Fancy
Rich, or rather diners that still have jobs, are being wooed by Adirondack chairs and ship lanterns in Red Lobster’s remodeling endeavor. It hasn’t worked on me yet. I may fall into the disposable income for dining camp, but I must admit my attention was grabbed harder by the chain’s by four courses for $15 promo than attempts at creating a new look. I mean, really, I could practically spend that on a sandwich at lunch (I wouldn’t, because I’m cheap). At least I have the choice, though; households earning less than $40,000, so-called "aspirational diners," aren't buying lobster dinners like they used to.
Who knew that when I randomly decided to visit a part of New Jersey I’d never explored and pulled over at a Texas Roadhouse , that I was fitting right into the CEO CG Hart’s vision for an expanding demographic. No, I am not a “blue-collar worker” and yes, we ordered “higher-priced steaks!” If the chain wants to appeal to this undefined “higher income” group, they probably should have the servers stop asking if you’ve eaten a rib-eye before. That’s just weird. And serve skin-on bone-in chicken instead of breast meat. Rich people like that (ok, they don’t—too much flavor).
Showing some chain ignorance, I always thought Grand Lux Café was the lower end Cheesecake Factory so I never wanted to go (only the best for me!).Yes, I know, grand and lux are word clues. I’ve steered clear of the one in Paramus and wasn’t tempted by the original in The Venetian over New Year’s Eve. And apparently, no one else has been going because the restaurant is perceived as being too damn fancy. Downscaling is in order. Throw out the Adirondack chairs, stat!
Cheesecake Factory CEO, David Overton told The Wall Street Journal that he’s making the "decor less formal and fancy," so as the newspaper puts it, “not to intimidate the average suburban family who wanders in after a trip to the mall on a weekday night.”
Not sure if I’d use the term intimidated to describe my reaction to the “elaborate design, sumptuous fabrics and textures, and custom artisan-created details…awash in a color scheme reminiscent of a Venetian carnival,” explained on Grand Lux’s site. It might be safer to say a little frightened.
Chain Links: Pizza Pizza Pizza
If you need any further evidence of NYC’s third world-ness, witness the brand new two-story Dairy Queen in Saudi Arabia. How can the Middle East have the largest DQ in the world (with two more locations on the way) when we live Blizzard-free here?
If Subway can do it, why not Quiznos? The sandwichery will be moving into Brazil, India and Kuwait this year and has its eye on more than 40 other countries.
Domino’s isn’t doing so well in China because it’s not a country of cheese-lovers.
It’s hard to believe that Yum! Brands, parent to Pizza Hut and KFC, hasn’t ventured into Argentina yet. Based on my experience at Guerrin, porteños are the opposite of the Chinese. No amount of cheese is enough.
More pizza. California Pizza Kitchen broke out of its Golden State confines long ago, and Taiwan is the chain’s latest geographic target. China already has CPK, and cheese-wary or not, they do have many pizzas we don’t. Red curry duck? Roast duck? I want the pork belly with mustard greens and cilantro.
Because the British vacation in Florida so much, Pollo Tropical might just succeed in the UK.
Kuwait’s first Pinberry has become “the number one Pinkberry in the world.
In Other Words: Texans Love Cheddar Bay Biscuits
The only remotely smile-inducing tidbit in New York’s otherwise depressing profile of Anna Nicole Smith’s Supreme Court battle for her nonagerian husband’s $1.6 billion fortune was the revelation that J. Howard Marshall II’s favorite restaurant when not country clubbing...was Red Lobster.
Also, at 19 Anna Nicole worked at a Red Lobster.
But I suppose in an 8,000+ word article about anything, Red Lobster is bound to come up at least once, right?
The Dallas Morning News ran a recipe for Cheddar Bay Biscuits just a few weeks ago. Secrets: Bisquick and margarine.
Texas-shaped biscuit photo from Information in Motion
Baby's First Hooters
I only became aware of The Tilted Kilt after taking a Hunch quiz last year to guide me to the best chain restaurant. I’m still not sure why I got the scantily-clad Scottish theme.
An article in this month’s Entrepreneur explains the success of such “breastaurants.” I wouldn’t think one would need to dig further than boobs, beer and wings, but I learned a few things:
- The menus are considered “upscale comfort food.” Nothing downscale about Gaelic Chicken (chicken breasts with a “to-die-for Irish Whisky Cream Sauce”) and Danny Boy’s Shepherd’s Pie.
- The Tilted Kilt is not “sexy stupid or sexy trashy” but “sexy classy, sexy smart or sexy cute.”
- Tilted Kilt servers do not “slip food to you around the corner” like at those non-sexy restaurants where waiters hide behind walls. Instead they practice “touchology.”
- Mugs 'N Jugs is a “crass” name, not anything like Hooters or Twin Peaks.
- At Twin Peaks, when ordering a beer you will be asked “Do you want the man size or the girl size?” Women, presumably order wine offered in three styles: red, white and pink. I don’t know who orders the G.I.L.F., described as “Grand Marnier with Raspberry. Not your typical GrandMa.”
In related news, a group of middle-schoolers ate at a Hooters as part of a Baltimore field trip. This is not the first time a field trip has shown up at Hooters, and it probably won’t be the last. Youngsters are totally welcome at breastaurants.
Kids a.k.a. Mountain Scouts eat free at Twin Peaks on Saturday and Sunday. A similar special runs at select Hooters and Tilted Kilt. Family fun.
Denny's: Crimes Against Nature
Denny’s—where I spent many a high school evening drinking coffee, eating Super Birds and smoking in the back room because there was nothing better to do at night—are scarce around NYC. The nearest location, 20 miles away, just happens to be in my favorite part of New Jersey; the region that’s also home to Bud’s Hut and the Linfield Inn. I took this as a sign.
But before heading out to Avenel to finally experience Baconalia (I don’t only wait for hotspots to have a month-long cool-down period) I was warned about restaurants defaulting to imitation bacon. No way, not at Denny’s.
The Maple Bacon Sundae was not a purist affair, however. The bacon crumbles, more fatty than crisp, as I like them, were real all right, but the scourge of diners everywhere: maple-flavored syrup, a.k.a. corn syrup followed by high fructose corn syrup on the ingredient list, was the amber imposter drizzled atop and pooled at the base of the vanilla ice cream tower.
Despite the unnatural sweetener, this was not a bad sundae. The spoonfuls of melting ice cream striped with syrup and smoky nubs of pork were welcome sweet-salty blasts; the only thing that could’ve upped the ante would have been a sprinkling of chopped hickory-smoked almonds.
I still had to admire Denny’s moxie. Sure, bacon desserts are old hat to food trend followers (though it’s a faster trickle-down than craft beers now appearing at T.G.I. Friday’s) but that doesn’t mean the average customer is necessarily ready for the meeting of sweet and salty in soda fountain classics.
The disgust and outrage overheard at a nearby table might’ve been initially mistaken for the matrimonial union between two men.
30-something dad: “I love bacon…but on a sundae? This has got to be a joke, right?!”
Son: “Gross!”
After grandma hobbled back to the table, dad proceeded to fill her in on the maple-bacon atrocity. “Can you believe it?”
I did not hear her response. Perhaps, she’ll now finally be able to say that she’s seen it all. I hope she's already watched Nannerpuss.
The Latest In American-Chinese Relations
In what some might call a ballsy move, Panda Restaurant Group’s Chairman Andrew Cherng may soon bring the food court staple to China. I’ve been wracking my brain for a US equivalent, but am coming up short. MOS Burger is the closest I can come up with, though they closed their only US location in barely American Hawaii back in 2005.
Maybe crazy is more apt than ballsy. Andew Cherng also thinks you can eat caring and that it’s more important than food.
An American reporter for The New Yorker hitches a ride on a cram-as-many-sights-as-possible-in-one-week Chinese bus tour of Europe. The itinerary is exhausting and Chinese food is the only cuisine consumed from Paris to Luxembourg. Local food is ruled out because the pacing is too leisurely and according to the tour guide “If you eat Western food too fast, you’ll get an upset stomach.” Perhaps this is the flipside to our nonsensical “If you eat Chinese food, you’ll be hungry an hour later” belief.
Photo from <3 Yen
Chain Links: Skinny Pirates
What is it with D.C.? The nation’s capitol got Nando’s first and now the Asian Chipotle, ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, will open there this summer. I don’t have high hopes, but would be happy if their dishes weren’t over 1,000 calories.
No one will care but me (not even my friend who lives in Woodbridge) but Bahama Breeze, the boozy Caribbean concept from Darden, is coming to Woodbridge, NJ, a town I find myself in at least once a month. Up until now, the nearest location was in Cherry Hill, which I only know because we had the restaurant as a client during my brief 2006 stint at a PR agency and a bunch of unbearable women in my department took a field trip that I only got out of because I had to go to Wales for my sister’s wedding. Two hours each way by car service, and I probably would’ve quit on the spot instead of waiting one more month. I probably wouldn't been forced to drink a Skinny Pirate (Captain Morgans and Diet Coke) though I wouldn't say no to a wood-grilled chorizo slider.
P.F. Chang’s is going to Canada. They may as well.
Turkey just opened its first Carl’s Jr. in the Cevahir Shopping Mall. The mall appears to already have Popeye’s, Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Krispy Kreme, Sbarro and Pizza Hut (it doesn’t look like the Turkish have gone Chinese with the salad bars yet).
Everyone wants to break into India, including Pollo Tropical, Rita’s Water Ice, Applebee’s, Johnny Rockets, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Carl’s Jr., Crepes and Coffee, Moe's Southwest Grill, Carvel and Denny’s. The latter will have menus “stripped free of beef and pork,” which makes me very concerned that Mumbai will never experience Moons Over My Hammy.
Chain Links: Snobs Unite
It’s touchy—and humorous—business when Pulitzer Prize winners review chain restaurants. I should point the delusional Carrabba’s commenter who said I was “the snobbiest restaurant reviewer ever” to Jonathan “I will always be the snob” Gold’s take on Olive Garden.
I love a good debunking, so I was happy to hear that the Mediterranean diet is a myth and that everyone on the region is fat and 75% of Greeks are overweight. I was more happy, though, to learn about the existence of Roadster Diner, an American-themed chain in Beirut. Why can’t cheese fries coexist with hummus and grilled eggplant?
Nando’s, the South African grilled chicken chain that’s popular in much of the world, (I ate at, but never blogged about the one in Penang) is reportedly going to expand in the US beyond its three measly D.C.-area locations. Where? That’s not revealed.
Apparently, there is a South African restaurant called 10 Degrees South in Atlanta that could be turned into in a national chain if one of the founders of Houston’s has anything to do with it. Will piri piri be the new chipotle?
We Can All Get Along in Cheddar Bay
The Atlanta Post, an African-American news site, attempts “Understanding Red Lobster’s Popularity Among Black Diners.” Dubious conclusion: blacks eat more fried fish than whites. Commenters not happy.
Somehow, not even at my suggestion, I ended up at a Red Lobster on Long Island the first weekend I moved to NYC, nearly 13 years ago. I (sometimes) hate perpetrating stereotypes, but yes, my group of four near-strangers was the only white party in the entire restaurant, a change for someone who had been living in the whitest city in America, days earlier. I figured that was just New York, not Red Lobster, specifically. I didn't know about the allure of fried fish.
Nearly unrelated: it always weirds me out how in Singapore they use the terms Jap food and Jap restaurant innocently.
National Republic of Food
There is a new site called Food Republic that’s messing with my mind (so is Eataly's soon-to-open La Birreria, which I always read as birrieria and get excited that NYC's getting a Mexican goat soup restaurant) not because it’s yet one more thing Marcus Samuelsson has been dipping his colorful sneaker-shod toes into, but because Food Republic is the name of Singaporean chain of themed food courts that I love. Really love. A food court with a library motif in a massive mall? I fantasize about making like those Thai girls who brought BonChon to Bangkok and opening a franchise in NYC.
Of course, serious food-lovers and expats, in particular, hate these soulless, overpriced, contemporary adaptations of hawker stalls. This week, CNNgo wound up commenters with a “Singapore’s Top 5 New Hawker Spots” post where three of the five examples were Food Republic branches. I think the title is the biggest problem; it needs a qualifier like modern or indoor.
Me, I like the elaborate, air-conditioned evolution and street carts and worn shophouses. What I find fascinating—and what others might call sad—is that many of these vendors are street stall transplants. For instance, the beef noodles sold at Food Opera, the food court inside the ION Orchard Shopping Mall, aren’t approximations churned out by a no-nothing upstart, they are the fourth iteration of a stall that opened in the 1940s. Then again, the most recent version was relocated to the mall because the owner’s spot was subsumed by a new apartment complex. Progress over preservation, is still the order of the day in much of Asia’s urban centers.
Singapore has always come across as a bit sanitized and un-sentimental, and I don't necessarily mean that pejoratively. I wonder if they have neighborhood booster bloggers like we do in NYC, who mourn the loss of old signage, mom-and-pop businesses and last-century grit?
Photo credit: WiNG via Wikimedia Commons
China's Salad Days Are Over
When not competing with Dubai or Taiwan over skyscraper records, the Chinese are (or were, rather) gaming the one-trip-only salad bar at Pizza Hut by devising elaborate vertical stacking. The company phased out the self-serve stations in 2009, likely due to customers’ creative plating.
Can a person really eat that quantity of cucumbers? And do you really want to taste peaches, corn and salad dressing in the same bite?
Photo from frites & fries
As Long As the Bloomin Onion Remains the Same
It’s spring cleaning season for chains. It seems like just yesterday that Olive Garden was talking Tuscan farmhouse revamps. Now, Outback Steakhouse promises a new look for up to 150 stores.
What this look might be is a mystery. Three years ago, OSI announced the very same remodeling plan, only explaining the style as a “bolder, more contemporary look” that in March 2008 had been implemented in two Florida units and one in Butler, NJ. Am I really going to have to drive 35 miles to see what they’re talking about in person?
Oh, thank goodness for search engines—I’ve actually posted shots of the not-so-new Outback Steakhouse design, myself. I still might check out Butler, NJ, though.
Not-So-Extreme Makeover: Olive Garden Edition
Just as Red Lobster is gradually transforming restaurants into a Bar Harbor, Maine pastiche, Olive Garden is remodeling more locations into that Tuscan farmhouse style you only see in the suburbs and that branch in Starrett City. How will the classy, understated Chelsea branch handle the change?
The thing is, that this American Italian fantasy look was introduced in 2000. Can you really call something 11 years old a “new model?”
Chain Links: Chuck E. Queso
Subway in India serves sandwiches I would actually consider eating (and mint and eggless mayo are offered). The Chicken Seekh uses ground meat, mint and chiles. I wonder if they have Otis Spunkmeyer cookies spiked with rose water or cardamom?
McDonald’s has never been a slouch in the localized menu department. They too, are appealing to Indians with a new Spicy Delights range.
A blogger in Peru happened to recognize the wife of the Pardo’s founder during a tai chi class and interviewed her. Pardo’s is kind of like the KFC of Peru, but the chicken is rotisseried, not fried. We briefly had one in the West Village that surprisingly kept anticuchos (grilled beef hearts) on the menu. In an informal poll, Pardo’s beat out competitors by a wide margin. I want to eat a place called Norky's, based on name alone.
Once you let in a Chili’s, the franchises will follow. Moscow now has a Pinkberry. Doesn’t $11 (even for a large) seem like a lot of money for frozen yogurt?
Nothing seems more American than Chuck E. Cheese’s, so it’s strange to see the pizza and playtime chain crossing borders. Northeastern Mexico will be receiving ten stores. Internationally, the restaurant already exists in Chile, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Zambia now has a KFC. I’m kind of more interested in the related post, “Lightning kills clergyman, man kills woman over chicken debt.”
Red Lobster will be arriving in Dubai and Kuwait City. No alcohol is no surprise and the bacon-wrapped scallop appetizer will have to go, as well.
Korean Chicken Joints For Thai Palettes
We’ve come to take Korean fried chicken for granted in NYC. It’s everywhere, even Sheepshead Bay (r.i.p. Staten Island BonChon) not just in Asian enclaves. We’ve been luckier than Thailand where the spicy, extra-crunchy chicken did not exist…until now.
A couple of Thai college students who went to school here wanted to recreate the experience back home. They followed through (how do you just open a foreign chain like that?) and now Bangkok has witnessed the birth of its first BonChon Chicken franchise in the Seenspace mall (I wonder how that Goth mall is doing?) and it has a New York theme, which is so triply cross-cultural it’s almost freaking me out (just almost, because I did eat Korean fried chicken at a place called Chill Out Sports Bar in Hong Kong that had New York-based articles on the wall, so this is not the first re-import back to Asia).
From what I can see on the menu, which is only on Facebook (I love how the one white guy in their photos had to be wearing a fedora) at the moment, the only obvious Thai tweak is the presence of sticky rice and the only oddity is something they’re calling chicken joints. Pardon my poultry ignorance, but what part of the bird is this?
I only wish that my eyes had not seen the words “Thai palette” mentioned in the original post.
Photo credit: BonChon Chicken Thailand
