Irrational Emotional Attachments

[Malawry]

I have an irrational attachment to discussing irrational attachments. I know I've started threads on them on other eGullet fora before. My interest in starting this thread was seeded by a discussion I had with DonRocks the other night. He mentioned offhandedly visiting a restaurant in my neck of the woods recently--Parkway Deli in Silver Spring. I asked if he tried anything from the pickle bar, and he said he didn't since he ordered to go. I immediately waxed rhapsodic about the place. He quietly asked me, "do they make the pickles in-house?" And, to be honest, I don't think they do. I think I can buy similar pickles at any decent supermarket, and get a pretty good version thereof.

I tried to think about Parkway objectively since we had this chat, and I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't that great. It's no Katz's or anything. But I love it anyway--it's one of very few places of its type around here, and eating there takes me back to my childhood in North Carolina when it was a huge treat to go to a city and eat in a Jewish-style deli. So I have an irrational attachment to Parkway. OK with me.

I also have an irrational attachment to Lightfoot Cafe in Leesburg, where I almost always eat at the bar and get the same soup and salad and cocktails. (It's good, but it doesn't merit the eagerness with which I look forward to future visits. I eat there the three or four times each year I attend concerts in Leesburg.)

Do you eat in places even though you know they aren't that great, and love them despite it all? What caused your attachment?

[akur23]

i have an irrational attachment to Parkway also. I love the big bowl of matzoh ball soup, even though my own soup is better. But it's a filling meal for $5. I also like their French Dip sandwich. I only eat the pickled carrots off their salad bar, but my husband likes a lot of the stuff. Next time we go I'll see if I see someone refilling the bar from a jar or not.

As to other irrational attachments, there's a tiny Chinese carry-out place near me (Kim's in Burtonsville), whose Hunan Beef I'm addicted to. The rest of their food is so-so, although they do have a small selection of pretty good dim sum on weekends.

[John W.]

Do you eat in places even though you know they aren't that great, and love them despite it all?

No.

[hillvalley]

Ummmm, yeah.

Mediterranean Café off of Wisconsin by the half built tower. Used to go there during lunch when I was in high school to get the Shish Taook.

Cheesecake Factory, again because of high school. I was serenaded their on my 18th birthday before our first and only semiformal. I'll show you the exact spot if you want

Krupins because it makes me think of my grandfather.

Burger King french fries because they have kept me going many a day.

Is that enough?

[Malawry]

Do you eat in places even though you know they aren't that great, and love them despite it all?

No.

See, part of the reason I started this thread was I couldn't see somebody like you or Mark or Don developing an irrational attachment.

In some ways, that whole thread on L'auberge was about possible irrational attachment.

And yes, Hillvalley, that will do for starters.

[John W.]

Very rational. I like accordions. I like pork. I like salt.

[cakewench]

oh, absolutely.

Our favorite destination when I was a kid (mostly 80's, very early 90's for HS) for birthdays was Chesapeake Bay Seafood House. Local chain.

(important disclaimer: yes, I know there is at least one restaurant with the same name, in Bailey's Crossroads, but it is simply one of the old restaurants which was purchased 10 years ago or so. Name was only slightly changed)

I loved the hush puppies. Baby gulf shrimp. Lemon-pepper battered cod. As I got older, I was even allowed to order the crab legs. aah.

The place wouldn't have won any awards, but I would certainly go back if it were still around (and, er, I were still living there.)

[JennyUptown]

I have a soft spot for Austin Grill's taquitos.

PS This is so weird: in my dream last night, there was a woman walking around with a t-shirt that said "cakewench." I kid you not.

[eunny jang]

<Cue swelling violins of shame>

I love the 17th street "restaurant" strip. I eat breakfast at Trio pretty often; I eat at Peppers or Dupont Italian Kitchen when it's late and I don't want to cook. I drink at the Fox and Hounds all the time. My very first apartment ever was at 16th and Riggs, and I have plenty of fond memories of drinking surreptitiously on that strip, flirting, and in-general pretending I was a grown-up.

One is impressionable when one is seventeen!

<cue swelling violins of unburdening and catharsis>

[DonRocks]

Dominic's Pizza on New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville, Maryland, formerly Gus's Pizza, formerly Valencia Pizza.

Budweiser-swilling, cigarette-smoking, Lotto-playing yahoos - there simply isn't any reason for anyone to go here, and yet I've been getting their carryout pizza since the Mesozoic era - it hasn't changed since then, either, and it isn't all that good.

Ah, but I still pine away for the long-forgotten Sammy's Villa in nearby White Oak Shopping Center - now that was good pizza.

[My Confusing Horoscope]

Dominic's Pizza on New Hampshire Avenue in Colesville, Maryland, formerly Gus's Pizza, formerly Valencia Pizza.

Budweiser-swilling, cigarette-smoking, Lotto-playing yahoos - there simply isn't any reason for anyone to go here, and yet I've been getting their carryout pizza since the Mesozoic era - it hasn't changed since then, either, and it isn't all that good.

Ah, but I still pine away for the long-forgotten Sammy's Villa in nearby White Oak Shopping Center - now that was good pizza.

Good God! I live just about across the street from Dominics.

Have you had their subs? Nothing fancy, but so many subs in this area have the toughest bread, whereas Dominics is just about right. I sure do miss poboys in Louisiana.

[Nadya]

Rosemary's Thyme for brunch. Sure, it's nice and all, but how many places in the same zipcode can do the same brunchy experience? Many many many. But still. It has Turkish flavor, and that's a pleaser for me.

Kramerbooks. My friends and I have a love/hate relationship with the place. Example: it's 3 am on a Saturday night and we are done with booty-shakin' in Cafe Citron or some other Rude Euro haven. Someone says, where shall we go? Some other person says, no, where CAN we go? Inevitably, we end up at Kramer's because very few places will be open at that time at that 'hood. It's like getting back together, for the seventh time in one year, with the boyfriend you know you can't stand, but there is something comforting about the very way he annoys you.

Sakana sushi place on P and 21st. Very pedestrian, uninventive sushi,. Food poisoning does not appear to be a real risk (although the fact that Sakana means "danger" in Hebrew cannot be real encouraging, now can it?) Why do I keep going there? Surely, I know better sushi. Yet at least once a month, without fail, my bottom ends up sitting in their chair.

Also see Cafe Citron, Agua Ardiente and ESL. But that is really outside of the foodie conversation.

Oh, oh, oh. Mie and Yu. Yes, the decor is stunning and people-watchin' can be fun. Drinks are okay. But the door staff is pretentious (what's up with keeping people outside when the place is barely half-filled?), the menu is SO overpriced and clueless, and also, when you put your drink on the soft cube-like seat, spillage inevitably follows. Still, once a month I would be there, giving yet ANOTHER tour of the place to an impressionable friend.

Does that qualify as an irrational emotional attachment? Or is it just plain irrational?

Edited September 2, 2004 by Nadya (log)

[hjshorter]

The Quarryhouse on (actually under) Bonifant St. in Silver Spring. The food is awful, but they have Bass on tap. I and my friends have drunk many pitchers there while arguing about politics, discussing movies, and gossiping about other friends. The Tastee Diner in SS too, always a late night or Sun morning destination for coffee, greasy breakfasts, and cigs.

I used to have an irrational attachment to Au Pied de Cochon which is now no longer with us. Never ordered anything but steak frites, or Eggs Benedict, also with frites.

The Childe Harold.

Toddle House in College Park.

[cakewench]

I have a soft spot for Austin Grill's taquitos.

PS This is so weird: in my dream last night, there was a woman walking around with a t-shirt that said "cakewench." I kid you not.

I don't think I need to say that I would totally buy that shirt.

Austin Grill is a good one. I used to wait tables in Old Town, and that location (er, I assume it's a chain?) was always a destination for forgetable Tex-Mex. or whatever it is. Beans and cheese and corn-based substances. mmmm.

[jilli42]

Jillian's in Arundel Mills. I know, horrible. But I used to work there and after finally finishing up at 3-4 am, their spinach artichoke dip or chicken quesadilla was pretty good. Last time I was there I realized, to my horror, that they changed the quesadilla and it now has a bland salsa mixed in with the chicken and cheese and it is no longer made with a tomato basil tortilla, it is just a soggy, flavorless white flour one.

[laniloa]

I haven't been in DC long enough to form attachments to restaurants here but I have many of these attachments to restaurants in other places I have lived.

Gallery Four pizza in NY. Fantastic pizza by DC standards but not by NY standards. I could go 2 minutes in any direction and get a better slice. But the family who runs this place is wonderful. This old lady who doesn't speak English will devine what meal is right for you. And I could walk there in high school for a slice and a cookie. I haven't lived there in 14 years but they still remember me.

L&L Drive In, Honolulu. For plate lunch, the place is pretty good. By objective food standards, the place is crap. But give me a teri chicken plate lunch extra rice, no mac salad and I'm in heaven.

[sweetfreak]

Mine is Cafe Deluxe in DC.

When I graduated from college, my girlfriends and I rented a house right down the street, so we started going all the time...at least once a week.

Then when I was in grad school, I worked there as a waitress for a summer while I took summer school classes. My only waitressing job and I loved it.

Now, I don't go as often, but my girlfriends and I still call it "our place".

[Nadya]

All right, I'll add something from College Park. Mind you, the entire area is a big culinary (and otherwise) wasteland that has, in my mind, no reason to exist. Or maybe that's just grad school doldrums talking. But there was a sprinkling of ethnic, mostly Indian, restaurants at the intersection of Univ. Blvd and New Hampshire that were a comfort in the land of chicken mcnuggets. Tiffin is the one that comes to mind, but there's another one next to it whose name escapes me right now.

[Al_Dente]

Taco Bell. Bean burrito-- lotsa hot sauce.

[morela]

5th Ammendment!

[littlechinagirl]

All right, I'll add something from College Park. Mind you, the entire area is a big culinary (and otherwise) wasteland that has, in my mind, no reason to exist. Or maybe that's just grad school doldrums talking. But there was a sprinkling of ethnic, mostly Indian, restaurants at the intersection of Univ. Blvd and New Hampshire that were a comfort in the land of chicken mcnuggets. Tiffin is the one that comes to mind, but there's another one next to it whose name escapes me right now.

Udupi Palace?

[JennyUptown]

Mine is Cafe Deluxe in DC.

My friend has this attachment and it drives me nuts. She likes their vegetarian options. When I can't talk her out of going there, I usually get a burger which has to be sent back to the kitchen for being overcooked. I should just order something else, but I'm stubborn.

[iamthestretch]

Ah, yeah, what Heather said: The Quarry House. I can't go down there anymore without expecting to see Terry Quinn having a few beers after knocking off work at the bookstore across the street. I suspect George Pelecanos himself drinks there -- may even have worked there back in his burger flipper/bar back days.

Edited September 2, 2004 by iamthestretch (log)

[sweetfreak]

Mine is Cafe Deluxe in DC.

My friend has this attachment and it drives me nuts. She likes their vegetarian options. When I can't talk her out of going there, I usually get a burger which has to be sent back to the kitchen for being overcooked. I should just order something else, but I'm stubborn.

The burgers there are really bad! Don't recommend them.

I tend to stick to apps like spinach dip and chicken quesadillas.

Penne with chicken is good but don't plan on kissing anyone after eating.

[eunny jang]

Oh yeah, also the following:

Ollie's Trolley and the Post Pub. I'd say they are crummy-but-good, except they're more crummy and not really good. But I love them dearly, since my first "real" job ever was around the corner on Vermont - I ate a lot of Ollie's fries in McPhereson Square, and drank a lot of Bud with coworkers.