Small-plate concepts

[Really Nice!]

Nice article in the Times.

It's about how some restaurants are moving their style towards a tasting menu. Good comments about Union, Lark, and Campagne.

[Foodie-Girl]

I hope more restaurants follow this trend as I also find "small bites" far and away more interesting than having to tackle a "main course" that is usually enough to feed two people and BORING !

Trying to remember my first "tasting menu" I'm thinking it might have been at Charlie Trotters (when he had his short-lived restaurant in Las Vegas).

It was about 8 courses and yet I left the table NOT feeling stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey. I had the thrill of so many tasty bites..especially when my husband and I ordered two different tasting menus....one regular and one vegetarian....more to share.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Just read an LA Times article which offers a possible explanation for this "nouveau phenomenon" of small plates, or, as it was formerly termed, grazing (too bovine for me!):

Today's young restaurant- goers — people in their 20s and early 30s — and, even more so, the generation that will follow them don't seem to have the patience for (nor the interest in) the leisurely dining experience.

Raised by two-career parents who are always in a hurry, nurtured on MTV and the Internet, accustomed to using several media simultaneously — instant-messaging while talking on the phone, watching television and listening to CD players — today's younger people seem to suffer from a collective, if nonclinical, form of attention deficit disorder.

To keep them engaged, everything has to be served up in small bites — including food. That's one reason, I think, that tapas restaurants and wine bars are increasingly popular. Just try to get into AOC, Cobras & Matadors or Enoteca Drago during prime dining hours. I suspect that restaurants specializing in meze — Middle Eastern appetizers — will be the next wave.

In many of these establishments, you come, you eat several small portions and you leave — usually without much dallying and in a room where Mach 2 noise levels make dinner-table conversation about as pleasant as brain surgery without anesthetic.

But some people accustomed to e-mail, instant messaging and the hermetic world of cyberspace not only don't mind this, they seem to welcome it; they've come to see face-to-face conversation as unnecessary, even uncomfortable.

So, my question to you eGulleteers out there, is simply this: do you "buy" this explanation?

Or is it merely that people's tastes have changed and evolved?

Or are we all tired of hearing "drive around please"?

Or are you tired of those cute little styrofoam take home doggie boxes because everything was just "too much"??

[reesek]

thanks for that article gifted gourmet. i, for one, don't buy the LA Times' explanation (though the mezze craze has already hit in DC)

i too, prefer to nibble. the reason i think tapas and small plates are popular is the flexibility. people can congregate in cute bars and have a snack with their drinks. they don't have to have a huge meal, they can try a place out before committing to a full meal there and it's a much more social way to eat. it's also a healthier way to drink. finally - true or not - there is a perception that it's cheaper than having dinner out - and it certainly can be if the goal is to nibble.

finally - this was touched upon in another thread - tapas/mezze enables people with a variety of different eating styles (atkins & vegetarian) to eat together without having to be ("that table")

i like small plates for many of foodie-girl's reasons. small plates can be more daring - chefs can take more risks or focus on one single flavor when several dishes are likely to be ordered.

[tighe]

I think their reasoning is bogus. Many cultures have been eating this way for centuries and I don't think it's due to widespread attention deficit disorder. I also just despise efforts to broad-brush large segments of the population, particularly ones that include me...

I'm sure it happens, but my experience at these kinds of places is not one of quickly scarfing down a couple things and then leaving. It's always been more about lingering over a long succession of different dishes and drinking too much wine. If anything, it is a MORE communal dining style than "traditional" restaurants.

I'm with reesek and F-G that the appeal is the opportunity to try many different things at one meal with becoming completely stuffed. If you think about it, its the same reason that people like to go out for sushi.

From the restaurant's perspective, this approach is probably a real revenue enhancer since individual dishes seem inexpensive. I know from my own experience at Lark and Harvest Vine that its easy to rack up a big tab without being completely cognisant of how much one is spending.

If there are really no mezze places in L.A., then we must be ahead of the curve here in Sea-town.

Edited June 24, 2004 by tighe (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

I, too, absolutely concur with you all on the desirability of small plates ... enough of which make for a big price ...

But I did read the article with some amazement at the convoluted way in which the author made the rationale!! ... boggled my mind ... had to share (so very California, ya know!)

Does one ask one's waiter for "the Ritalin Tasting Menu"??

Edited June 24, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[DRColby]

We have a couple we travel with whom have an almost "small plate" solution.

Both decide togther what they will eat with neither having the same thing. When served they immediately cut th plate in half. The one who selected the plate delivered eats their half and then pass the last half.

We have gone so far going to fourths with them. Works well in France with first and second plates when one wants to avoid the "grand gastronomic" tasting menu.

it also makes for some interesting table converation and commentary.

dave

[Really Nice!]

Just read an LA Times article which offers a possible explanation for this "nouveau phenomenon" of small plates, or, as it was formerly termed, grazing (too bovine for me!):

...today's younger people seem to suffer from a collective, if nonclinical, form of attention deficit disorder...

If this is true, then why are so many successful movies going past three hours?

Stopped in Union last night for dinner. They seem to be picking it up a bit. Presentation is getting better and more impressive. Their wine list is expanding to include some heavy hitters such as '99 Cos d' Estournel for $100 (I think) and a few other notables that this early morning hour won't let me remember. All told there were about eight bordeaux. There were also a couple Californian's in the $200 range.

Anyway, as a first plate my girlfriend had a mixed green salad with blue cheese, I had cold cumcumber soup with salmon and caviar. She then had an Ahi tuna dish and I had a rabbit loin. I was really in the mood for foie gras but it wasn't on the menu.

[tsquare]

I was really in the mood for foie gras but it wasn't on the menu. 

That was one of my concerns in my original review of the place - not that I wanted the foie gras - but that sometimes the menu has such foods, and sometimes it doesn't.

Edited June 25, 2004 by tsquare (log)