Another "Southern With a Twist!" place opened downtown.
Serving the same $28 pork chop as every other restaurant in their zip-code. Welcome to commodified, pre-packaged, "new south" food. Same restaurant, different name.
Look you fucking jerks, "New" South ain't so new anymore. Now it's "Also-Ran South" and "Me-Too South". If you don't have something new to bring to the table then don't open a place and put a dish in front of me. And what balls you have! Charging The People $40 a cover for soul-food on fancy plates. I know I just don't feel like a meal is complete unless my overpriced wine rides in Riedel glassware. "House-made Blue cheese dressing." It sure as shit better be! Why would you feel the need to even bring that up unless you're trying to compensate for something?
I often hear the counterargument that there's room for both casual and fine dining. I reject this. First, it's only ever brought to the table by the owners of fine dining places trying to defend their costs and shitty attitudes about attire. If, as it should be, it's first about the food, and last about the environs, then serve me your food on less expensive plates and charge me a reasonable amount for it. We're doing a 4 course dinner here on the 31st for $25 - and we'll make money. Don't let these motherfuckers talk to you about labor and food cost. The labor is so high because they don't do anything themselves. How often are owners working the line at these joints? They're not. They're having cocktails with that woman from the paper telling them how great they are.
Look, every chef becomes a chef because they have a pathological need for praise. It's just like stand-up comics and actors. We need to be told we're good enough. Something in our brains isn't tuned up right. It's never all about "passion" (don't even get me started on that excuse for acting like an asshole) from a psych standpoint. But when the media gets involved you're on another planet. They're paid to jerk you off. They didn't show up to talk bad about you. Treat them like every other customer. Let them pay like every other customer. You know who gets a little something extra at The Owl? Line cooks and servers. The walked-on and beaten-down amongst my profession. I'll give them a little shoulder rub and an It'll be alright with a free app. They deserve it sometimes.
People keep asking why our food is so cheap. Because we don't have any fat. You're not paying for salaries and houses of people that don't work in the restaurant. Why is their food so expensive? Because it's inflated and bloated by location and surroundings.
It's class discrimination. Plain and simple. The people deserve well thought out, creative food just as much as the BMW Class. And while we don't mind dining at the same place as them, they sure as shit don't like someone in work boots near them while they dine on fish that's almost extinct.
So, yeah, Fuck Fine Dining.
