Out with the Old, in with the New?

[Toliver]

When I visit my family in another city, my best friend and I usually meet up for breakfast. Where we meet for breakfast has become the issue.

My friend is always looking for something new. He doesn't seem to be content to go back to a place he's dined at before.

I, on the other hand, believe that we vote with our wallets, that by (repeatedly) patronizing a local (not a chain) restaurant I'm saying "I like what you're doing. I'm going to give you my money so you can, hopefully, continue to stay open and prosper".

We've seem to have settled into an unspoken truce over this issue by alternating where we eat...I choose one time and he chooses the next time.

I asked him why he always wanted to try something new and he replied "Don't you want to find some new places to eat? How do you know you're not missing out on the next great place?"

To which I replied, "I've found great places to eat and would like to return there to give them my business."

If I had more money or time, this wouldn't be an issue. But since it is, I prefer the known over the unknown.

We won't even get into the fact that most of the places he wants to try don't even offer chicken fried steak and eggs which is fodder for different discussion.

How about you? Do you keep trying to find the next great place? Or do you prefer to stick with what you know will be a good dining experience?

[JFrillman24]

How about you? Do you keep trying to find the next great place? Or do you prefer to stick with what you know will be a good dining experience?

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Me personally I like the adventure of going out and trying as many different places that I can. I think this may have to do with the fact that Im young in my culinary career and am constantly looking for new ideas and learning as much as I can about the way other places do things. Im constantly dragging my friends who know little about food to new and interesting places and they tag along and learn too. I do however have 1 place that i will religiously go just because i know what im gonna get im gonna love, but new things is what im all about

[Raoul Duke]

I'm in the camp of "i don't want them to f/u my eggs!"

[Lilija]

A little of both, I guess. We have an array of favorites that we love, and return to frequently. We have a go to place, for each of many different needs.

Once in awhile, a new place will open locally, and we give it a shot, or we'll seek out somewhere new, or something different entirely, when we're looking for a place to go, but for the most part, when we look for something new, we're looking to add it to our stable of "old faithful" places, or to compare it somehow.

Our Thai place, for example. We ate at a restaurant almost faithfully for the past 9 years. We developed a fantastic rapport with the place. During that time, we would sample other places in the area, most were decent, some were great, but not as great as our place. Now, the owner has moved back to Thailand, and we've got to take our regular Thai business elsewhere, it sucks, but it's not as painful as it would be, if we hadn't tried out the other local Thai places.

That's how we are with pretty much every restaurant. We have a steady place, but make sure we've been around, too.