Do restaurants matter? Are they really any good? Obviously many of them are doomed post-lockdown and will likely become whatever follows the vape shop as the highstreet fad by this time next year. But other than the people they employ do people really like them? Really? Really... ?
Firstly, nobody who is employed by a restaurant really likes restaurants. I was a chef for a decade, I don't enjoy restaurants as it stresses me out. You wouldn't send a WWII veteran to Normandy for a holiday.
Secondly, have you ever been to a truly quiet restaurant*? People, for whatever reason, really do like paying other people to cook for, and even carry their food to them. Your chain restaurants exist to feed people who don't want McDonalds, your independents exist for more of an experience, but I don't think they're going anywhere. I think this will accelerate the culling of shit chains like Zizzi that never really made enough money, but it's hard to say.
*Not counting 4pm on a tuesday or whatever autistic time you might find yourself wanting food
I moved away from Leeds, started a hospitality consulting business and then started a new career in the air travel industry, so I'm doing exceptionally poorly on all fronts, but at least I'm furloughed. I'm just saving up for some really nice kneepads for when I do have to go back to sell myself on Holbeck Lane.
Restaurants are seen as a luxury, but they also have some fairly important social functions, if you think about it.
They fill the gap for celebrations for people who don't want to go out drinking or meet at home, it's a setting for one-on-one dates and conversations, a pleasant change of scenery for couples and loved ones, etc.. Additionally, the really good restaurants are seen as a barometer for the food culture of an entire area, as important a bit of the local scene as art galleries or music venues.
I get the feeling that the reason the OP doesn't like restaurants, though, is because the typical business model is so obviously at odds with these functions. The immense pressure to turn a profit results in overcrowding (goodbye intimate conversations), stressed staff (goodbye pleasant change of scenery) and cutting costs to squeeze whatever margin you can (goodbye cultural barometer).
Neoliberal capitalism guts places like this of all meaning with the unrelenting pursuit of a higher return. The same applies across all other areas of life with intangible qualities that aren't so easy to turn into profit.
What's with those restaurants that have tables right next to each other? How am I meant to be talking to someone, potentially about my private life, with some stranger knocking elbows with me. Who enjoys that? Fortunately I'm usually too poor for restaurants so lockdown's been fine for me
>>13449 >I can't install a 50 foot screen and 35mm projector at home
Do you need one?
Apparently you eating a microwave diner is the same experience as a restaurant why isn't your TV a better experience then having the kid 2 rows behind you talking through a movie that you can’t pause and having to pay a tenner for a tub of popcorn and a drink?
>>13447 >>13448 >What's with those restaurants that have tables right next to each other?
I've never understood how people are okay with this either and will actively avoid restaurants that do this. The worst part for me is when you can't hear the person opposite because everyone else is talking in your ear. And those times when there's plenty of space by the windows but I get assigned some table in the middle of a row in the ugly people section.
You will usually find this with places in the city that have good ratings but it always felt silly for me as I can't enjoy the food when I'm claustrophobic. I don't care how authentic the food is, I'm here to spend time with someone as the priority.
>>13441 It's not that I dislike them, but I find them the least appealing of all the public places you can go with people. If I wanted to eat and drink I'd rather be in a cafe or pub, or weather and enviroment permitting, get something to take away and sit outdoors. I feel like their only function is for people to meet up with extended family members and eat mediocre fare in groups of at least four. If we weren't resigned to living in tiny homes and getting by on whatever's on the "Whoospie" counter at Asda that wouldn't even exist.
It does seem strange that they can be so sneeringly reductionist about one ritual of life and culture. But so snobbish about the other that they wouldn't dream of going somewhere that they served popcorn!
