quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

Now that we have the separate chain threads, I rarely post or reply to those threads.

What pisses me off are people who "personally" take offense to my slamming of chains, see it as an insult to "them" and then they slam me in return. In fact others on this forum have replied to those people and have said "wait a minute, he’s not insulting you, why are you getting so upset"

I know many will disagree with me but I don’t like chains because
A- They put the local restaurants out of business. Just ask many of the former restaurant owners of the eatieries in the past Roadfood books. I spoke to a few of them and there response was that they could no longer compete with the new strip mall down the road or the new series of chains off the interstate. The food quality never changed, but I guess chains through advertising make people think that "they’re like everyone else now that an Applebees is in town"
B- The Food Sucks. Perfect example, on my business trip to Austin last September I went to mostly local restaurants and a local chain where the food quality ranged from average to outstanding. I went to two chains (not by choice) Dave and Busters and Hard Rock Cafe and one chain came to me (the bigwigs ordered pizza) from Papa Gatti’s. The food sucked. Period. I can compare the quality to eating a nuke’d stouffers lean cuisine
C- They have destroyed the regional individualism and uniqueness of our country. Kansas City Fried Chicken houses have been replaced by Applebees, NY Kosher Delis are being replaced by Subway, BBQ pits in Tennessee are being replaced by Sonic. I could go on but you get the picture. Some may say that these regional restaurants are a thing of the past and that the new regional cuisine are the pho parlors in Minneapolis and the Burrito Wagons in Charlotte- wrong! Pho parlors have been around a long time in San Franciso and Seattle and The Burrito Wagons have always been there in Santa Fe and San Antonio.
I’ll take a Lutheran Church Basement Scandinavian Dinner in Minneapolis and a Meat and Three in Charlotte anyday- now that’s the way it should be!

AMEN!