Restaurants

~ MaryG
Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite restaurant?
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Last year I read a book about the restaurant industry. It’s called “Your Table is Ready” by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina. It’s a memoir about the author’s experiences working “front of house” jobs (primarily maître d’) in various NYC restaurants. The main takeaway for me was that it’s extremely difficult for a restaurant to get it right and be successful. There are so many variables. And it’s not just the food, it’s the vibe that keeps people coming back. Would you rather walk into a restaurant where someone greets you warmly or one where you’re ignored?

We’ve got two local restaurants we go to a lot. One we call “the fish place.” They have reliably good fresh fish (it’s actually a fish market too) and nice servers, many of whom have been there for years. We typically sit at a table, but it’s got a very popular bar in the back of the restaurant that is not too loud. (It’s funny how “not too loud” has become one of my main criteria for restaurants.) I would describe the vibe as “neighborhood.”

The other is an Asian Fusion restaurant called Karma. The food is delicious and they make a cucumber cosmo that is my favorite cocktail ever. The vibe is younger and hipper than the fish place. Dark with jewel tones, the decor feels exotic (for lack of a better word). It also has a large bar which makes it lively, but again, not too loud.

13 thoughts on “Restaurants”

  1. I smiled so big to read about the noise level!! Super important. I can handle the noise of people, but don’t like loud distracting music unless it’s a bar. This may come from spending work days inside music that I’m not choosing. 🙂

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    1. I agree. Loud music in restaurants is horrible, unless it’s a live musician that you actually want to hear. Hearing is like vision. It does decline with age. Nobody wants to struggle to follow the dinner conversation!

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  3. We just had dinner at a new restaurant’s pre-opening. They invited a number of guests for a trial run for the kitchen and wait staff before the opened the following week. The owner is a friend of our friend so we were happy to tag along. I watched and thought how difficult it must be to open a restaurant and really become successful. Every detail matters. And you are right, the vibe is just as important as the food. Fortunately, this isn’t the first restaurant the owner has opened and the food was amazing. He brought over recipes from Italy and we had a wonderful meal.

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    1. That’s so cool that you got to go to a restaurant soft opening. He talked about those in the book a lot. They sounded so stressful – and exciting! Did you watch “The Bear” TV series?

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      1. It was a pretty neat experience. I watched the owner looking at every small detail. He was great… walking to each table to chat. His persona was infectious.

        I didn’t see “the bear”. What was it about?

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      2. The Bear is a really great scripted series (on Hulu) about a young chef from the world of fine dining who comes home to Chicago and takes over the family sandwich shop.
        I’m sure having a magnetic personality helps when you’re a restaurant owner!

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      4. The star of The Bear (Jeremy Allen White) and some of the other actors received many awards and accolades. And I just read that he’s gonna play Bruce Springsteen in an upcoming film. Pretty major role!

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