Holly Moore

While I agree posting the restaurant's letter was a questionable/shoddy decision made primarily to build traffic for yet another ho-hum restaurant ratings web site, based on the owner's post here, he may have the right to reprint the restaurant's post. In many cases where users post to a website, the website acquires at least shared ownership of the content and gains the right to use it to promote or otherwise benefit their website. How a website uses a user's contribution hopefully influences whether the user or other potential site users continue to post to a website.

It could be a local or state ordinance. More likely it is required by the insurer that writes the restaurant's liability policy. No e-coli for you. It's a foolish requirement but one I am finding more and more often.

I'm not taking exception because the definition of fast food seems to be in the eye of the beholder. But for me, Crif Dogs is not fast food at least it doesn't feel like a fast food restaurant. I would consider the Nedick's all over New York to be fast food. Maybe, to fit my perception, the place has to be a chain operation. McDonald's corporate culture always referred to a McDonald's as a restaurant. It was a corporate sin to say "stand" or "store." Just as McDonald's never used grease, just shortening. There were no rags, just towels. No special orders - rather "grills," because if customers heard a counter person requesting a special, other customers would realize that they too could have burgers made to spec which totally slowed down production.

I get the feeling that "fast food" has one definition within the restaurant industry and one for the general public. The public definition is broader than the industry definition. Say "fast food burger" to me and I think it comes from one of the chains - franchised or company-owned - that offers walk-up (and now drive-thru) service where one orders and pays for the food at the same time. The burger is pre-cooked or in the process of being cooked before it is ordered and may be already pre-assembled and packaged. Within my mindset White Castle is fast food. White Manna is not fast food. Pizza Hut is an interesting exception. I do consider Pizza Hut fast food because it is a national chain and found along most fast food rows stretches of highway. From the outside it looks like a fast food chain. It's been so long since I've eaten in a Pizza Hut that I have no feel for their level of table service. I keep thinking of those montages of fast food signs that publications like Nations Restaurant News do - typically it is all the national fast food chains, including Pizza Hut. I mentioned the wheel of retailing in a earlier post. I first learned the term while at night school while working in Chicago at McDonald's headquarters. It stuck because even then, in the late 60s, it applied to McDonald's. Even more so now. Between conception and the late 60s McDonalds had added the quarter pounder, filet-o-fish, and the Big Mac. They had evolved from fresh cut to frozen potatoes. Apple pies were added as a dessert. They had started adding dining rooms. They had designed a new look, less fast-foody style building including no golden arches. They were experimenting with a number of new products. They added breakfast. Since then, at various points and at various locations, McDonald's has added salad bars and prepackaged salads, more burger variations, chicken sandwich variations. Apple pies are gone, replaced by ice cream. Other menu additions. There is a driv-thru window. Many Mc D's have play lands. Customers bus their tables. Dinner platters are bound to happen. My interpretation of the Wheel of Retailing as it applies to McDonald's is that to maintain market share McDonald's has had to keep upgrading their food (variety not quality), level of service and atmosphere. This is cyclical and at some point there will be an opening for a new chain to appear that gets total back to the basics - no frills hamburgers, fresh cut fries and drinks sold cheaply, but in an atmosphere that stresses, as McD's motto puts it, "Quality Service and Cleanliness." Fast food now ain't so fast. Preparation has gotten too complicated. Sales are spread over a multitude of product so fast food places can not count on under ten minute product turnover of all products. Nowadays it is hard to tell the lines to order from the people standing around waiting to receive their order. That rarely happened in the early fast food burger places. Perhaps the Wheel of Retailing is correct and there is a viable segment of the market that is as interested in the "fast" as in the "food" - a market that is not being served as well today as it was served in the 60s and 70s.

I agree that the term makes little sense without a food-service context. My sense is that the term fast food to define a segment of the restaurant industry came into use in the 70s to apply to all the various franchise fast food restaurants. I do not recall McDonald's, when I worked new products in the late 60s, considering itself "fast food." It bears on the evolution of a fast food hamburger from its prime to the mediocre version that is served today.

The term "Fast Fppd" was originally applied to the hundreds of primarily franchised walk up counter restaurant chains such as Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, JAX, et al that sprung up in the 60's and 70's. The concepts were similar - limited, inexpensive meals, prepared just before being ordered - and served at a walk-up counter. Howard Johnson's and the Big Boy variations served many similar items but were not considered fast food because of the waitress/waiter service, the broader menu, and food being cooked to order. A fast food burger can not be defined without considering its habitat. It has to come from a fast food restaurant. It is pre-prepared either in its entirety or as individual elements ready to assemble. It is packaged. It has perceived value compared to a "full-service" burger. As chains have complicated their kitchen by adding hoards of new products, burger production has changed. Originally burgers were grilled in batches of 12 or 24 or they were run through a conveyor broiler. They were immediately placed on buns, garnished and wrapped. The finished burgers were held in a warm holding bin, usually with a ten minute shelf life. Today burgers are precooked and stored in warm, moisture controlled drawers, and assembled mostly to order. This has made fast food slower and less fresh. A McDonald's of today can not produce a burger that approaches the quality of the 1970's McDonald's hamburger.

What about those places where you order, are given a placard with a number on it, and they deliver to your table? ← I don't consider such places to be fast food. The food should be ready to be given to me when I order. ← But, by that definition, virtually no place is fast food...except for prepared sandwiches. ← Yes. But back in the 60's and 70's, McDonald's food was all cooked ahead but turned so fast that it was, in theory at least, always freshly cooked. A customer would order, then the counter person would pull the wrapped burgers out of the bin, pick up the bagged fries at the fry station, grab the drawn drink - all in a minute or less. That was fast food.

What about those places where you order, are given a placard with a number on it, and they deliver to your table? ← I don't consider such places to be fast food. The food should be ready to be given to me when I order.

Fast food is mostly of the past. As restaurants that were fast food expanded their menus they have been less able to offer freshly prepared food fast. If one accepts the wheel of retailing there is opportunity, now, for an entrepreneur to bring back fast food. Fast food is assembly line restaurant food prepared ahead of it being ordered but existing in high volume restaurants where the prepared food sells in ten minutes or less. Fast food is a limited menu of popular food items. Fast food is cheap food, but a good value. Fast food means no table service. Customers gathers their meals. Fast food just ain't what it used to be.

No "Grease Stains" for you, Leafy Greens Cafe.

A good friend from my ad agency days, who had intensely studied such things, maintained that he received more vodka ordering a vodka martini with no vermouth than when he ordered vodka straight up. He also said the best martinis (the most vodka) were served at Chinese restaurants. He also came up with "piece of the rock" after an evening of research.

Are you guys open yet? I'm in Nashville and thirsty.

Grant's twitter points to this video review. I like not having to actually read a review.

Some things happen way too late in life, like lunch today. Had my first Texas barbecue from a Texas barbecue place. Louie Mueller Barbecue. Brisket and a sausage. Side of beans. Just one question, did I start of with the best or is this going to be one of those times where each Austin area barbecue place i hit is going to be better than the last? I can't see the brisket getting better than what I had a couple of hours ago.

Good, fresh seafood at the Schooner. I had the fried shrimp and scallops plate. The scallops were definitely fresh and outstanding.

Thanks - Dippity sounds like lunch tomorrow. I'm heading to the Schooner in Nederland. Will report back

I'm striking out finding a place for dinner tonight in Beaumont TX. Trying to avoid Cajun (just came from New Orleans) and barbecue (heading to Austin). I am hoping to find some good, basic Texas seafood - non-chain. Port Arthur is a little far to drive, but willing to drive 15 miles or so. Thanks, and happy trails to all...

For restaurant front-of-house / owners: If a guest hosting a six or eight top, when making the reservation or upon arriving at your restaurant, requested that no service charge be added to his bill - that he would add the gratuity based on his judgment, would you comply? If no, would you cave if the party then opted to not make the reservation or to leave?

My suspicion is that a second dinner, even if comped, would be as unsatisfactory as the first meal. There is no on/off switch for competency.

Only thing missing now is Studio Kitchen, the place to eat amazingly well. Now I'm going to start complaining about the blog being back - a constant reminder of Studio Kitchen, itself.

The rigors of research.

My boss called a frigiarium a walk-in. I think he only had a B.A.

Though not for sous vide, at McDonald's we used a fryer at low temperature, with an oil bath, to reheat precooked top rounds to be sliced for the Roast Beef sandwich we were trying to develop. My boss, a liberal arts major, called it a tepidarium. As I remember we ran it at something like 160F. We also used a smaller version, with water, to reheat packets of frozen sliced beef in gravy for another variation of the roast beef sandwich. This we just called a water bath.

The restaurant and the server are both obliged to rectify an honest mistake. Pursue it with the restaurant nicely, first. I suspect they will refund the tip. If not I'd put in a request through the credit card company.

I have glanced at Yelp a couple of times but have not been drawn to it - partially because I have trouble with the concept of anonymous reviews and partly because of an article I read somewhere on their advertising tactics (thought it was eGullet, but can't find it) For market research specifics Yelp is useless. Too small a sample for most places and the sample is only composed of those driven to Yelp to add a review. For focus group generalities it can be useful. Gives you an idea as to how some customers perceive your restaurant or bar. I'd take it all with a grain of salt - but if there were a few complaints about spotted glasses or aloof servers I'd look into the issues.