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MetroplexJim 6 years, 6 months ago.
Now I’m not sure if I’m sad or glad I’ve never been to Texas.
Just think of it as ‘the Augustine’s Pizza’ of places to live.
I had a feeling you would say that!
I want ambiance to be appropriate to the place. As you point out, Donald Dresden “got” this. (Like you, I loved his reviews.)
So, I want an honest Midwestern supper club to have “supper club” ambiance, and not put on airs, or try to be trendy. If a place is supposed to be a profound upscale experience, I want everything to be perfect, from atmosphere to upholstery. My biggest turnoff is when a place is “pretentious” — hard to define, but as with Justice Potter Stewart and obscenity, I know it when I see it.
Depends. If I’m going somewhere with friends (and we’re not just drinking the night away), then yes, the overall dining experience is important, and food quality is only one of the considerations.
But if we make a decision as a group to disregard that, and go somewhere just for the food, then ambience doesn’t matter. And if I’m going somewhere by myself, I’m generally going just for the food, so ambience doesn’t matter then either.
Some of the best food I’ve had has been from places with no ambience or even negative ambience. It’s easy for me to tune out everything but the food. Food, food, food. However, these aren’t places I would take friends unless we weren’t looking for a place to sit and talk, and I made the quality of the food clear beforehand.
Now I’m not sure if I’m sad or glad I’ve never been to Texas.
Just think of it as ‘the Augustine’s Pizza’ of places to live.
There’s a lot to love about it, but then …
Ambiance “used” to be important. Then I discovered that some of my favorite meals have come from places that just serve great food.
My latest write home about great meal was at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. No ambiance whatsoever, but if I could go back over and over again I’d probably be there now.
Ambiance is nice, but the food comes first.
Another question might be…. location.
Returning to the regular scheduled programming…..
Wasn’t there a restaurant that used the catch phrase ‘You can’t eat atmosphere’? I seem to recall it may have been Horn & Hardart.
Being from NY I’m fairly familiar with Peter Lugers (both locations) and a place on Long Island offering similar fare (excuse the plug for PG’s Steak House in Huntington or Ellwood NY). Similar fare with very similar prices. Recently the wife and I had the opportunity to drive from the east coast to Denver and back. On the way we stopped for a steak lunch at Doe’s Eat Place in Little Rock and got a T-bone for 2 with salad and fires that we enjoyed as much as back east. The place has zero ambiance but is a classic and the best part, the total bill was $38. If we lived nearby, in no time my cholesterol would have a comma in it.
Ambiance is nice but I’m gonna go with food first, but the place has to be clean. When I used to go to Desert Hot Springs we would go to the VFW every Wednesday for tacos. Ambiance: 0 Tacos: 10. Same with Bush’s Family Restaurant in Logan, OH. Ambiance: 0 Broasted Chicken: 10. Maybe I’ve just been to too many fancy-shmancy restaurants all over Europe and the US and ambiance is not so important any more.
Exactly.
I’ve had better steaks than the ones I enjoyed at Windows on the World but few as memorable.
Been in Texas going on 2 months now. Let’s say it’s differnt.
I’ve never seen so many American made cars since the 50s. Kids are now adorned with tattoos from their wrists all the way to their belt line leaving no naked skin to be seen. That’s the women as well and they’re not all kids. Hope it scares away the skeeters.
I do see boots on some of the “older” men and I like the way it affects their stride.
I’m almost to the Oklahoma border and that does make a difference. I think this is more old school Texas.
I don’t see the bobbed noses here or the inflated flotation devices. Except for the tattoos and piercings, people are real and not plastic. I see more big belt buckles than hats.
The one thing I do see here more often than in Los Angeles is manners. Don’t see cars covered in door dings, either.
I go with ambiance. It is important. [:)]
The Bubba Burger at Fugler’s outside Marshall, Texas is the best burger in the state, IMO.
Now I’m not sure if I’m sad or glad I’ve never been to Texas.
Frankly, the ‘real TEXAN uniform’ I described in #39 above is fairly common in Ft. Worth than it is in Dallas. The gentlemen with such ethos in Dallas (more properly, Highland Park & University Park – independent cities wholly within Dallas) tend to dress bespoke, boots included. Their watches are leather-strapped Patek-Philippe; their vehicles start at Lexus & Benz. But, the bearing and manners are the same.
The university faculties down here are considerably less looney than elsewhere, but are still looney.
MP Jim —
Someone who has lived in Texas said you could live there forty years, and never be a REAL Texan. This guy lived in FW-D. I would think that attitude would be found more outside the cities if anywhere. Have you found that? I would think not so much in a university setting.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ambiance Ambiance.
Personal example: Dallas now has some really great pizza – Cane Rosso, Olivella’s, Campisi’s, Coal Vines, etc.
But, if my last meal was a pizza, I’d eat it at http://www.campisis.us/#!history/c1kqf Campisi’s Egyptian Lounge. There, the ambiance is so very enjoyable that it makes pizza ‘the total experience’.
In fact, when I do a mental review of all the great dining experiences in my life, ambiance is at least as important as the food itself.
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My all-time favorite food critic was the late Donald Dresden of the Washington Post.
Atop each of his reviews was a summary; restaurants were rated 0 – 5 on:
Food – quality and presentation of the restaurant’s chosen cuisine
Ambiance – the way the place, in all ways, made you feel while dining (or just chowing down)
Potables – quality, selection, preparation, and presentation of liquid refreshments
Service – skill and ‘attitude’
Price – self explanatory
Value – the overall rating
He approached and evaluated each establishment based on its own terms. That is, e.g., if a place presented itself as a neighborhood redneck bar he evaluated it on how well they achieved being a worthy or unworthy neighborhood redneck bar. It was the same for the fanciest French Restaurants.
After Dresden led with his bottom line, his entertaining narrative would justify it. His reviews were the most reliable and useful I’ve ever read.
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Sorry for prattling on, my question here is how important is ambiance to you?
I had to laugh at the cowboy hat reference. I have found that that are many “cowboys”, that are “all hat and no cattle” cowboys. I have cattle, I hate hats, as they make my head itch. However I have a pretty good Stetson, beaver, for those necessary occasions. Since I am losing my hair, I usually wear a loose, tie down bucket hat or a very old Cleveland Indians baseball cap. I have no class whatsoever. But I don’t feel that I have to impress many people at this stage of the game. LMAO.
Oh, yes. We still have “the real deals”. They wear the hat their daddy passed down, a plain double pocketed shirt, comfortable natural fiber pants, and re-soled many times boots. Their only adornments are plain wedding bands, a serviceable watch, and some form of Masonic insignia. They drive decade old American luxury cars that are spit-shine clean despite having 300K on the odometer. Those gentlemen are TEXANS. They are soft-spoken and have manners the Queen of England would envy. Do no mess with them.
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