I lived overseas for about 20 years, and when I returned to New York (about six years ago) it took a while to catch up with certain things. Chain restaruants was one of them. I would see a restaurant that I never saw or heard of before (with good reason), and think to myself, aha, a new restaurant. How nice that there are some new, independent restaurants in New York these days. And then I'd be in another part of Manhattan and I'd see the same restaurant there, too. And it finally hit me (I am, admittedly, a little slow on the uptake). These are not new restaurants. They're new chains. I was very disappointed. However, one of those chains does have one of my favorite snacks. Ollie's. First one I saw was on Broadway up by Columbia. I was taking classes there, and Ollie's was right across the street. For months I thought it was the only Ollie's in the world, how unique. Ha. Anyway, their vegetarian dumplings are the best. They roll the dough so thin! Sometimes on my way home from work if I'm tired and hungry and know that there's nothing hanging out in the fridge at home, I'll stop at Ollie's (now it's the one on Broadway and 44th St.) and get the vegetarian dumplings to go. Mmmm. Great sauce, too. But I have to give a thumbs down to the idea of chain restaurants in general. I have this haunting memory of being in Ireland several years ago and just walking around. I hit this area where I was surrounded by MacDonald's and Burger King and several other chain restaurants. I could have been anywhere in the world, and I didn't like that feeling. I wasn't anywhere in the world. I was in Ireland. And I guess I wanted to know it without having to say to anyone, "Excuse me, but, what country is this?" Just one of my idiosyncracies!