rant: fine dining

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themiddle54
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by themiddle54 »

Michael wrote:I remember going to Next during their 2nd season and seeing a guy walk in with shorts on.
Did you try Proxi yet? I know you're a Sepia guy. It's VERY good. The fish collar is incredible. Also, Proxi is not the restaurant I'm ranting about above re flip flops. During our visit, Proxi was a flip-flop free zone.

We praise Blackbird because Blackbird was the first place to do Serious Food in a casual enough environment. You didn't need to wear a tie, or even a jacket, and the atmosphere was lively and didn't take itself too seriously. It led to the wave we have now with all these upscale neighborhood places like Fat Rice and TDS and Entente and Publican Proper/Anker, and Giant and Longman where you can just kind of come as you are and they food is Michelin Bib Gourmand grade or better. 20 years ago we had fancy restaurants with fancy food for special occasions and casual restaurants serving casual food for everyday but now we have casual restaurants with fancy food and casual environments for everyday. And we should praise Blackbird for that but they also need some blame because they got the ball rolling to get us to the point where a guy will walk into a fine dining restaurant in shower shoes.

Also Blackbird is the restaurant that started Chicago toward becoming what is now and has been for about 5-6 years the best food and drink city in the US, but also a city oversaturated with those upscale neighborhood restaurants. It's been unsustainable for a long time and the bubble is starting to pop. In the last couple months we lost both Yushos, Paramount Room, Bar Marta, Dixie, 42 Grams, Sink Swim, The Pump Room (being reconcepted by LEYE because there's a reason the 7 owners of The Pump Room in the last 12 years have failed), an outpost of Bangers & Lace, Intro, Vera, Karyn's, Bar Deville (this was personally heartbreaking I have I don't know how many yardstick memories at Deville), Smalls BBQ (which I've raved about on here), MK and a whole bunch of other places.

We're the best restaurant town in America. But our restaurant industry is completely [expletive] and about to collapse under its own weight.

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Farewell Friends
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by Farewell Friends »

Little Liam is an [expletive].

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themiddle54
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Re: rant: fine dining

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He's just like 8 months old so the jury is still out. Based on his lineage the odds are not in his favor.

tlombard
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by tlombard »

Last Wednesday I was at the bar waiting for the Blues game to start and was given a sample of something they were thinking about putting on the menu.

They were basically chicken nuggets.tiny tenders but with the skin on and all fried and crispy along with the breading. They were delicious. It was just like proper fried chicken but in small chunk form. Why don't places have this?

Sadly the bar will not be adding them to the menu. Apparently they're just too expensive to buy ready to fry and would be way too time consuming to make themselves and thus not cost effective. Their vendor had given them a sample case to try and get them to buy them and they would have had they not been $40/case (not sure how much is in a case). I'd pay a premium for those things but probably not what they would have to charge to make them worth carrying.

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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by tlombard »

Taking half of the chicken breasts that you normally grill on the flat top for lunch everyday and slapping BBQ sauce on them does not qualify that as BBQ chicken and charging more. Thankfully the girls who work the registers in our cafeteria are on our side and only charge for the normal chicken when their boss isn't in sight.

cardsfantx
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by cardsfantx »

lol, i think it's awesome that the fine dining thread has turned into a discussion about cafeteria food and chicken nuggets

tlombard
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by tlombard »

cardsfantx wrote:lol, i think it's awesome that the fine dining thread has turned into a discussion about cafeteria food and chicken nuggets
Hey, I'm an idiot with nothing better to complain about.

If you want actual topics closer to fine dining, I did find a new spot for a splurge meal for me from time to time at The Choice on S. Jefferson and Utah. I haven't been in the restaurant but had it delivered last weekend since I had $25 in credits to Skip the Dishes.

Their surf and turf was well worth the $30 price. I got a really good 14oz ribeye, a really nice large piece of grilled salmon and two sides (I went with asparagus and mac n cheese). I can only imagine it would have been much better eating it in the actual restaurant instead of waiting for it to be driven a few miles to my place.

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Swirls
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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by Swirls »

This type of fine dining rant has been made before, but I'll throw in my latest experience...

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I went to a fairly nice-ish (~$30-40/person for most entrees) restaurant for my birthday. After tip our bill was a little over $200 - no complaints about the price. The food was fantastic, as were the cocktails.

The place advertised itself on its website with buzzwords like "nice, casual atmosphere" etc. They do have an actual bar area that's separate from the main dining area. It's not a sports bar, but they do have like 1-2 flat screen TVs. It's the type of bar that specializes in happy hour to the true white collar working crowd. Lots of schmoozing with clients and whatnot.

So anyways, we have a reservation for 7pm, figuring that's when most of the happy hour crowd would be dissipating. I put on the OpenTable request that it's a birthday reservation, so I'd prefer a quiet table out of the way from all of the hustle and bustle. They accommodated my request without a problem. As we were being escorted to our table, I glanced around at the patrons to make sure we weren't under or overdressed for the establishment. We were not. I'd say 80% of the people were wearing traditional business casual attire. Some were dressier - I saw several guys wearing ties, of which I was as well. I did see one person total wearing blue jeans, but they had on a button-up long-sleeved shirt, so they were at least making an effort at the "nice casual atmosphere" and weren't egregiously underdressed.

Anwyays, not too long after we sit down and place our order for cocktails and an appetizer, the waitress brings a new couple to sit down at the table next to us. The girl was dressed fine, but the dude appeared to be in his early- to mid-20s and was wearing a douchey backwards flat-brimmed baseball hat (with the obligatory douchey 59FIFTY sticker still affixed), a solid white t-shirt, a pair of Nike basketball shorts, white socks, and a pair of those "slide" Nike/Adidas sandals. Literally the only person in the entire dining room wearing any of those things. It appeared that they were on a first date, as my wife and I overheard most of their conversations throughout the evening.

The guy was a bit taken aback at the pricing, so he ended up only ordering one of the cheaper appetizers for his entree, and he boxed up the extras. She ordered a basic salad. Both only drank water. I mean, I appreciate a guy wanting to take a girl to a fairly nice restaurant for a first date. But Jesus, at least look up the restaurant's menu online before you show up. The prices and menu options alone should give you a decent idea of the expected dress code. And a third grader would be able to at least guesstimate the expected bill based on what you'd plan on getting. If it's out of your comfort zone, don't go. Everyone will be better for it. I felt bad for their waitress, as they were still there drinking their water and talking after we left, and their bill was probably less than 1/4 of ours. We were there a little under 2 hours, so they likely ended up there about the same amount. I hope that poor girl didn't go for a second date.

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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by tlombard »

Ended up at Sister City on S. Broadway for lunch today at the urging of a friend and it was really good. I will be back. I wasn't super excited about the red beans and rice but the spicy shrimp tacos were really good. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of paying $7.75 for two tacos and nothing else but they were worth it and actually filling. The total for the tacos and red beans and rice was $11.75 before tax and tip. I was stuffed and ready for a nap which is a rare thing for me. If you like cajun, give them a shot.

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Re: rant: fine dining

Post by tlombard »

Has anybody been to Grace + Three yet? I am going to have to get by there and give this burger a shot ASAP after seeing this picture. I'd pay $9 for that.

Image

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