Can suburbs be culinary destinations?

[melkor]

The Why isn't Detroit a Restaurant City? topic brings up an interesting point. All the food towns I can think of are cities themselves, the surrounding areas are often dotted with destination restaurants. Most of the country has a few good restaurants reasonably near by. Food towns come in a variety of sizes - Philadelphia, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, etc. All of them have dozens of good fine dining destinations, modern, and traditional restaurants, and a wide assortment of ethnic cuisines done well. Can the suburbs of a city not known for its food be a culinary destination?

[MarketStEl]

I was about to answer that question in the affirmative until I read the "of a city not known for its food" part.

Cities and their regions are interrelated, and the state of the core city affects the state of the region, regardless what the folks in the suburbs think.

I await the provisions of exceptions to this rule.

[Dave the Cook]

Two possibilities come to mind. The first is Houston, which, while having several decent downtown restaurants, probably falls short of "culinary destination" in the same sense as SF, NYC or NOLA. There is, however, an cumulative magnet of urban, suburban and exurban places sufficient to make the area as a whole worth a visit.

The second is the Florida Gulf coast, particularly the stretch between Destin and Panama City Beach (or maybe even to St. George). There's not a white-tablecloth place to be found on US 98 or C-30A, but if "good ingredients, well-prepared" is your mantra, you could do much, much worse. Urban center, you ask? Well, in this case, it's Atlanta, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville, Cincinnati . . .

[TAPrice]

I can imagine an ethnic enclave in the suburbs as a culinary destination. For example, here in New Orleans, people head out to the West Bank or New Orleans East for Vietnamese.

Of course, we're a food city, so it doesn't fit your criteria. It seems like a non-food city, however, might have a similar situation.