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I live in the city, and I don't frequent five star restaurants. In fact my favorite type of eateries are cheap Colombian/Italian bakeries, inexpensive taquerias, and four dollar food truck food that's served in a styrofoam tray. Yet I f*cking hate Olive Garden, White Castle, etc. Worst part about Olive Garden is that it tries to act like a fancy restaurant, when in fact it's an overglorified McDonalds. If I go to a small rural town, I'm fine with a farmer's market, or a three star diner, or a local burger joint. Don't use the "small town" excuse to take your visitors to a f*cking Applebees.
Regarding the mentality described in the Original Post, I've seen the same thing in attitudes toward shopping malls. Once, I had to go into Northpark Mall, in Ridgeland, Mississippi. It's a pretty nice, medium-sized mall: http://www.ridgelandms.org/wp-conten...northpark1.jpg I think it's nicer than Beverly Center http://www.downtownmakeover.com/down...Escalators.jpg , which I used to go into only because I used their parking lot when going to offices at Cedars Mount Sinai, next door.
Anyway, I'm schlepping along, thinking how pleasant it is that Mozart is playing instead of Elton John, and hear these kids bewailing the podunkness of Northpark. "I know! Back home, this isn't even a mall!" And I'm wondering where "home" could be - considering that, aside from the gargantuan Mall of America, all malls are pretty-much like Northpark. Kid didn't have a Minnesota accent, though. Maybe Toronto has a giant mall that is a sister to the one in Bloomington?
I guess that when feeling insecure in a new place, everyone wants to feel 'special'....
I admit to being a bit snobby about food sometimes but I rather like Olive Garden. (There. I said it.) They've got some great appetizers. But OP, I also think your friend was rather rude.
I've had great, satisfying "yum, that hit the spot" meals at cheap 24-hour diners, food carts and chain - even fast food - restaurants as well as more "haute cuisine" restaurants. In the end, food is food - you eat it, then poop it out the other end hours later. And food with friends is more about the company than the actual food, anyhow.
I think there's two completely separate issues here - elitism in food choices, and lack of social graces and rudeness. It's one thing to have specific preferences or dislikes, in anything, and quite another to be rude about it.
I don't like chain restaurants either, because even though some items might taste okay, they're generally extremely unhealthy, loaded with fat, salt, and god knows what else, made from cheap, sub-par, frozen ingredients, not to mention overpriced. It's just a fancier, expensive version of fast food really. At that rate, it's much better to just cook your own food at home. Big city dwellers, however, often don't have the time/space/grocery options available to do much cooking, and are surrounded by a plethora of affordable, delicious, authentic food options from every corner of the globe, that's generally cheaper than buying ingredients and cooking at home - so why not take advantage of it?
However, if I'm a guest at someone's home and they offer to take me to Olive Garden, or Mcdonald's for that matter, I'll graciously accept and find something small to order. Doesn't mean I would go there on my own accord.
No different than the bewildered, non-trusting look when bringing some non-big city person to a non-chain restaurant, and they still end up ordering close to what they are use to (or nothing at all), because they are scared to ever try something new or something besides yet another variation of a hamburger or pizza.
I agree. I live in a small city which did not have diverse food options, and it was a novel experience for the guests that I brought to an Indian or Thai restaurant. You should have seen the reaction on my grandfather's face when I brought him to an Ethiopian restaurant when we were both in the Minneapolis - St. Paul metropolitan area (which, unlike Duluth, where we are both from, has diverse choices as to where to eat). He's an Applebee's fan to the core, too. He still hasn't tried the Japanese restaurant near his house, either, though he did go to the hibachi grill and enjoyed it.
It's not surprisingly that older people would have limited tastes in food, but this extends even to my peers. One girl I hung out with claimed to only like the bland food - "the whiter it is, the better" - and she was a huge fan of the Olive Garden, which she affectionately referred to as "the O.G." One close friend was very angry about the choice of a local Japanese restaurant for the celebration of the end of our group's internship. He was a huge fan of fast food, despite having lost tons of weight and being in very good shape. I don't forget about the students moving up here from the suburban Twin Cities for college, and expecting the same chains as down there! Back in the days before I graduated college, all the Facebook pictures on my newsfeed of "bestie dinners" were at chain restaurants - like we don't have a variety of local joints, some of which are very good!
I guess some people are more risk-averse towards food than most of the posters on this forum. I actually asked this question on a "foodie" board a long time ago, and the more objective responses were that they stick to what they know will give them a decent meal rather than hedge their bets on a local restaurant they know nothing about. For a couple of local examples, they'll go the familiar Applebee's for burgers, even though there is Big Daddy's, A and Dubs (not affiliate with A&W!), the Fitger's Brewhouse, and a plethora of other affordable restaurants and bars (such as The Anchor Bar, which has won awards for its cheap burgers) that serve hamburgers of all kinds. And they will certainly go the Olive Garden in lieu of Valentini's, Bellisio's, or Va Bene.
It used to drive me crazy when the school clubs I was a member of opted for Domino's rather than local pizza. Besides being much better tasting (Domino's was crap back then; I hear they improved since), it also supports local businesses rather than multinationals.
Interestingly, the people whom I usually see dining at those local restaurants, besides hipsters, are middle-aged yuppies, most of them probably from "the Cities" (Minneapolis/St. Paul metro).
I live in the city, and I don't frequent five star restaurants. In fact my favorite type of eateries are cheap Colombian/Italian bakeries, inexpensive taquerias, and four dollar food truck food that's served in a styrofoam tray. Yet I f*cking hate Olive Garden, White Castle, etc. Worst part about Olive Garden is that it tries to act like a fancy restaurant, when in fact it's an overglorified McDonalds. If I go to a small rural town, I'm fine with a farmer's market, or a three star diner, or a local burger joint. Don't use the "small town" excuse to take your visitors to a f*cking Applebees.
Agreed. Most places have some sort of interesting or regional cuisine. This is one of my favorite things about traveling and it's one of the reasons a lot of people instinctively dislike certain chains. The whole "uniformity of America" thing. I don't want to go somewhere to end up eating at Chili's. I want the places I visit to be different from the places I just came from, or I probably wouldn't be there. And, in my opinion, I don't care if I don't consider your Mexican food to be inferior to my food (said every Californian to everyone else), at least it's different.
I do understand that Chili's and the like have their place--it's a known quantity (easier if you're traveling alone, or with others from out of town) and possible easier to get people to agree on. And regardless of the above, the OP's friend sounds like a huge tool.
My response would have been: "Aren't there any decent local diners or holes in the wall? You can get Olive Garden just about anywhere. I'd love to get a taste of local fare."
I would have responded exactly the same way.
In fact, I once had that opportunity. In Costa Rica, I was moving through the city center when my host aunt (one-week homestay, not like I'm going to get nostalgic for home, especially when it was snowy when I left in late March!) started feeling pangs of hunger and asked whether we should just eat at McDonalds. I asked her something like you in a polite tone of voice and she brought us to a local fast food chain operation.
when you live in a sewer, you need to take the few positives of the sewer and magnify their importance. oh we don't have a front lawn, but we have lots of fancy restaurants! oh, a homeless person just took a dump outside my front door. but I can go eat at an Argentinean restaurant whenever I want!
Everything you've said is 100 % false.
I'm not even going to read the rest of the responses after this, like I usually do because I can tell where this has headed, city vs country debate. Again.
I love Olive Garden. There isn't one in our town, nearest one is 120 miles away. Sigh.
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And food with friends is more about the company than the actual food, anyhow.
