Small Town Dining -- Spare Me

[Fat Guy]

While I fundamentally agree with the premise here, I think there are some commonly accepted myths that need to be debunked if we are to get to the bottom of things.

Myth #1: France is an idyllic culinary nirvana where every randomly selected restaurant serves you a high-quality four-course lunch, and every French person eats this way every day.

Reality #1: In any given year, you can read the same stories in the business magazines, for example this one from the Economist: "McDonald's is opening 30-40 new outlets a year in France, where it now has some 900 restaurants—more per head than most of its European neighbors, including Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. (Britain is still just ahead, but the company opened there earlier.) McDonald's now claims to be the leading restaurant chain in France. Its French sales and profits were both up by over 9% in 2001—a year when the company saw global net profits fall by 17%." Plenty of French people are eating with great frequency at the same chains as their American counterparts. Plenty of French people are eating at Denny's-quality chain cafeterias attached to hypermarches, which are incidentally on highway strips that look just like American highway strips but with less choice and shorter hours. Even those small family-owned cafes can suck -- I've had lousy meals at such places, which can be even worse in Paris than in the countryside.

Myth #2: Frozen food is bad. Prepared food is bad.

Reality #2: Come on, people. Freezing is a technology for the preservation of food that is used at most every level of cuisine, right up to restaurants with international acclaim. Most every piece of sushi you've ever eaten has been frozen. And prepared foods have their place; indeed, an industrial facility with high quality control standards can in many instances produce cheaper and better base items than the average restaurant.

Myth #3: There's nothing good to eat at the chains.

Reality #3: Many of the chains are not bad at all. They're just average. So when you're in a place where most of the single-establishment restaurants are worse than average, the chains are your best bet. You can get a pretty enjoyable meal at an upper middle market chain like Outback or Legal Sea Foods. And a few of the cheap chains are good too: Long John Silver's, Chick-Fil-A, Arthur Treacher's, Popeye's -- people may want to have the fantasy that local family-owned blah blah blah restaurants are better, but finding such a place that has better fish-and-chips than Arthur Treacher's is the rare exception not the rule.

[Holly Moore]

Myth #3: There's nothing good to eat at the chains.

Reality #3: Many of the chains are not bad at all. They're just average. So when you're in a place where most of the single-establishment restaurants are worse than average, the chains are your best bet. You can get a pretty enjoyable meal at an upper middle market chain like Outback or Legal Sea Foods. And a few of the cheap chains are good too: Long John Silver's, Chick-Fil-A, Arthur Treacher's, Popeye's -- people may want to have the fantasy that local family-owned blah blah blah restaurants are better, but finding such a place that has better fish-and-chips than Arthur Treacher's is the rare exception not the rule.

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I agree that many chains are ok. I like Popeye's and Arthur Treacher's a lot. But I have access to all the chains in my back yard. So does everyone else in America. There is nothing special about the Outback Steakhouse off the Interstate exit or the Long John Silver's on fast food row in Charleston. It is comfortable food - I know the odds are that I won't get bad food, I won't end up hugging the toilet at 3 AM. No risk with a Popeye's chicken dinner. But the odds are even greater that I won't walk away thinking I had a great meal; boy, that was a special place.

Much of the adventure of travel is discovering new, good and perhaps great places to eat. I know it is out there. I may not always find it, but it is there.

With adventure comes risk. I am willing to risk a really disappointing, a really bad meal in an unknown place. That is the price I pay for the really great meals I happen upon. The more I do this sort of thing, the better that I get at separating the gems from the coal. Less bad meals and more fantastic discoveries.

- I am reasonably sure that in any town that has a courthouse in the town square also has a good breakfast and lunch place within a block or two.

- I know that if I am stuck spending the night in interstate exit ramp hell, I can drive five or ten miles to a small town and a decent non-chain meal.

- And I get a kick from talking with locals about what's still good to eat here-abouts.

Most times I get a good, but not a great meal. At least half the meals I eat on the road don't end up on my web site. But with every meal in an unknown restaurant comes the possibility of a great meal. That is never the case with a chain.

I am willing to eat the occasional bad meal, even hug the occasional 3 AM toilet in my pursuit. Ain't no big thing and at my price level it's not like I'm wasting a lot of money. So, other than an occasional craving for Waffle House, it is unlikely in my travels that I will ever not drive the extra mile or twenty miles to avoid a mediocre chain meal.

[ronnie_suburban]

. . . But with every meal in an unknown restaurant comes the possibility of a great meal.  That is never the case with a chain. . .

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This is so true. I've always felt this way but I've never heard the sentiment expressed so succinctly. I think this is why I almost never bring a (leftover) lunch to work. The thought that whatever we are going to order in that day could open a new door is just too compelling for me to pass it up. Leftovers be damned! (even though they often would be better than what we end up with)

=R=

[robyn]

Oh, you'll do worse in rural Canada.

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You can do badly anywhere - including New York City - if you just pick places at random. What are the odds of nailing a terrific Italian restaurant in Little Italy if you pick one at random? I had plenty of random terrible meals in NYC before I decided that random didn't work there.

I think you nailed it on the head when you said that people who go to Europe with 5 pounds of restaurant guides don't do any homework when dining outside the larger cities in the US. And there's really no excuse for that these days - because there are so many sources of information about "road eats" on the internet - sites like Holly's - and lots of others.

In addition - it's usually a pretty safe bet that you're not going to get terrific food at a restaurant in a small town that specializes in "Continental cuisine" of any flavor (for that matter - it's often hard to get terrific food at a restaurant like that in a big city!). And when you find yourself in a restaurant like that (e.g., my in-laws' favorite restaurant in their home town was such a place - so we wound up there more than we cared to) - the best bet is KISS. A simple steak. A simple common fish (like salmon). A baked potato.

BTW - to your list of decent chains - I will add Maggione's - and Black Eyed Pea. Robyn

[Fat Guy]

I have access to most of the major chains near my home, but I mostly save them up for road trips. That way, if I get into a situation where I expect that doing better than the chains is going to require more effort than I'm willing to expend (I'm hungry, I'm cranky, I'm tired, I just want something to eat and I don't want any damn risk) I go to a chain. Anyway, I consider maintaining chain literacy to be part of my job -- I can't see how it's possible to be a so-called dining expert if you don't know what normal people are eating. I also enjoy looking for regional variations in chains -- it's similar to how I appreciate the people in cookie-cutter condo developments who have done interesting things with their yards and entryways; there's always room for individuality within the boundaries of conformity. I love visiting the various concept McDonald's that we don't have where I live: The McCafe and McDonald's Bistro Gourmet Euro-style test restaurants, the Chef Mac's Cajun concept, McPizza, the World's Largest McDonald's on I-44 in Vinita, Oklahoma, etc. (here in New York City we have the flagship McDonald's near Wall Street, which has marble tables, a tuxedoed doorman and a live pianist). And then there are the regional chains, which I don't have access to: Golden Corral (yes, to me the one or two times a year I can get to a Golden Corral -- especially for weekend breakfast -- are a real treat), the amazing Souplantation chain (which kicks the ass of 95% of small town casual eateries), Biscuitville (ditto), etc. I'm a risk-taker but not a gambling addict. You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

[godito]

Myth #1: France is an idyllic culinary nirvana where every randomly selected restaurant serves you a high-quality four-course lunch, and every French person eats this way every day.

Reality #1: In any given year, you can read the same stories in the business magazines, for example this one from the Economist: "McDonald's is opening 30-40 new outlets a year in France, where it now has some 900 restaurants—more per head than most of its European neighbors, including Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. (Britain is still just ahead, but the company opened there earlier.) McDonald's now claims to be the leading restaurant chain in France. Its French sales and profits were both up by over 9% in 2001—a year when the company saw global net profits fall by 17%." Plenty of French people are eating with great frequency at the same chains as their American counterparts. Plenty of French people are eating at Denny's-quality chain cafeterias attached to hypermarches, which are incidentally on highway strips that look just like American highway strips but with less choice and shorter hours. Even those small family-owned cafes can suck -- I've had lousy meals at such places, which can be even worse in Paris than in the countryside.

No, not every eatery in France is great or at least good. Some are pretty bad. But I agree with the original point in the thread. Food in many rural places of the world is better than food in rural America. It has to do with culinary culture. How much do you respect the food you eat and cook? How do you use seasonality? How trained is your staff (that includes back and front of the house). The french have a reputation of being rude. And in a way I think they are more... I guess the word is pedant. But my experience (and this is only MY experience) the waitstaff has regularly been friendly and/or efficient. Yes, they do think they are better than you, but they are honest workers and they've shown me respect whenever I had a chance to eat there.

About Micky D's... you say that it's the biggest chain in France. It is, sure, but that's because chains are not really a french concept. How many french chains do you know? McDonalds might very well be the largest chain restaurant in the world. Also, I would be surprised to find them in rural france. They rely heavily on bistros and such.

I also have to agree about food in rural areas being better than in Paris. Paris is a metroplis, much like (I don't want to say NY) ok, new york. I have never had good fried chicken in new york. But I've had terrific Indian, Chinese, Italian, etc. In Paris, the best meal I remember was Moroccan Cous Cous. The rest I can't even remember.

However, in Europe, I find that when you are traveling, if you find a restaurant with a lot of people in it, it's usually pretty good. However, in America... well, that has not been the case in my experience.

[Holly Moore]

I learned all I need to know about the Olive Garden five years ago in Cherry Hill NJ. Any further meals at an Olive Garden would be self-flagellation, not research.

I truly believe that a meal squandered at a chain restaurant is a missed opportunity for a new dining discovery - especially when I'm on the road and charting uneaten territory. Admittedly it is an obsession. More often than not I push on after hitting the road-weary wall.

In my favor - I am rarely on a timetable and can and often do drive an hour or two out of my way to avoid chain fodder. I also try to get off the interstate for fifty or a hundred miles and follow the old routes that the interstate replaced such as US 11 in VA as opposed to I-81. But such drastic measures are rarely necessary.

There is still plenty of good eating out there - even after the chains have Wal-Marted small town America. Just need to look harder. For me, "folding them" is admitting defeat. And I'll drive another hundred miles rather than let the dastardly chains win even one hand.

[Fat Guy]

The French chain that I've usually seen across the street from McDonald's is called Quick. ( http://www.quick-restaurants.com/ ).

[chefzadi]

The French chain that I've usually seen across the street from McDonald's is called Quick. ( http://www.quick-restaurants.com/ ).

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Of course Quick is better than Chez Mac Do .

[Pan]

What about Flunch? Really cheap sandwiches and stuff. My fellow students at the Academie d'Ete de Nice ate there all the time, but I was on a per diem from a fellowship, so when I got a really upset stomach the first time I tried eating an 18-franc sandwich at the Flunch near the Nice train station (this was in 1992) that tasted no better than lousy college cafeteria food in the US, I never ate anything there again and got 40-franc pasta lunches in cafes instead. I'd be a bit surprised to hear that Flunch has improved much since then, since the whole premise of the place was to serve really cheap versions of what you could really enjoy if you went to some store and paid just a bit more. Also, for whatever it's worth, I've found it a lot easier to find lousy food in France than in Italy, though I do agree with the general premise of this thread.

[*Deborah*]

Not sure what parts of rural Canada you've travelled to, Fat Guy, but I must agree that having driven to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory from Vancouver (Cassiar up, Alcan down), it becomes tiresome eating only food that came off a Sysco (or whoever it is) truck. Mind you the strawberries that fell off the truck when it went into the ditch (and doubtless increased the 86 list for a few places in the Yukon) were lovely and delicious.

In defense of those restaurants along the way that all seem to have the same menu, of course, the farther north you go, the shorter your growing season...small town populations...and short culinary history, in many cases. You're usually safe sticking to burgers and meat and potatoes. But in small towns up north, you're not too likely to find food you're going to want to write (nice things) home about. Although I think I had a nice piece of pie in Deas Lake.

[Jinmyo]

Oh, you'll do worse in rural Canada.

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Oh my, yes.

[Busboy]

Alas, the worst people to querry are the desk clerks.  They'll send you to Olive Garden for the best Italian food in town.

I've had good luck with police officers, volunteer fire departments, clerks in book stores, restaurant owners and, on one occasion, county prisoners.

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i'm with Holly on this one. Plus, the desk clerk was clearly not a local, so I would have expected, at best, a list of whatever the "usual suspects" (or a steer to the Ruby Tuesdays next door, which has a relationship with the hotel).

I remember once, years ago, asking all over Little Rock, Arkansas, for a decent barbecue joint and getting repeatedly steered to the chain restaurant in the redeveloped Watefront section. Finally, an old geezer bellman steered me a great place in a "bad" section of town where we had great ribs and sides and great service from the lady who owned the joined, who was clearly quite tickled to see a little bit of the tourist trade dropping in.

(Speaking of Little Rock, on another night there I found a decent red-sauce Italian joint, too. One of the reasons we hunt down Italian places when we're in strange towns is they seem to be pretty high percentage shots for a decent plate of pasta, garlic bread and cheap wine. The error in Lexington was not going suffiently downscale Italian -- also, getting in late and too tired to scout around properly.)

[touaregsand]

I've been to some pretty small towns in America. Won't name which ones. My experience has been that the locals usually are not reliable, neither are desk clerks, hardly what I would describe as concierges. I've had better luck asking out of towners who've visited before.

As for small town dining in France. We've done the drive between Lyon and Paris several times, back and forth. What's between those two cities doesn't even compare to type of food available between LA and SF, a route I've driven a dozen or so times. Given that California is probably still the richest State, doesn't give me much hope for the rest, parts of which I have also visited many times.

[bleudauvergne]

You've got to have the nose for it.

My mother had a nose for good food. She and I did a lot of driving in the rural South when I was around college age, various pilgrammages to visit family here and there and then once we took our time driving to Houston. I was an uncomfortable teenager (also raised a Yankee) and we arrived in Crowley Louisianna at sunset. There was a long strip of abandoned shop fronts and it seemed to me there was absolutely nothing there. In fact I think I remember tumbleweed and clouds of sand and remember the clunk clunk of us driving over the rairoad tracks, taking a U turn, because mama saw something, and the clunk clunk back over. She'd seen a sign. Hand painted "Crawfish Tonight" was all it said. The room was completely white and flourescently lit with one flickering bulb. I don't remember people speaking much. And we paid out 5 dollars and got the big plate. Steaming, heaping piles of crawfish fresh from a spicy boil and cups of melted butter. We ate a whole platter and then another, and then we ordered one more and took it back to the hotel room. It was the first time I ever took a photo of food.

[Busboy]

As for small town dining in France. We've done the drive between Lyon and Paris several times, back and forth. What's between those two cities doesn't even compare to type of food available between LA and SF, a route I've driven a dozen or so times. Given that California is probably still the richest State, doesn't give me much hope for the rest, parts of which I have also visited many times.

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That's one of the things that bugs me about the area we were traveling.

The North end of the Shenadoah Valley (and for all I know, the Souther portion, where we stayed, too) is the source of incredible produce, beef and cheese. Very seriously good stuff. But, apparently, far more of it it going to the city farmers markets where I buy it, than is heading south down the Interstate to the smaller towns along I-85 and U.S. 11. It's possible that I would eat better if I shopped at the farmers markets in DC and brought the stuff with me to the Valley to camp, than if I shopped in the counties where the stuff I buy is grown. Odd, that.

But, if we didn't hit any great restaurant dining, we did find a roadside store that sold whole and half country hams and home-cured bacon, and we did find a couple of bottles of locally produced pink wine that went down damn well in the woods by the swimming hole -- and gave me the courage to almost keep up with my son, as we traversed from rock slide to rope swing to cliff. (If y'all need some [70's-era] soft-drink commercial-quality swimming holes, PM me).

I'm with Holly, though, in almost always being ready to throw the dice one more time, rather than eat at the chains, and to get off the Interstate and go the backroads, whenever time permits (this is not always a popular strategy but, hell, I'm the Dad and the Driver). And, at one level, I'd rather have a meal bad enough to get a 2-page thread (always my goal) on eGullet than the chain-store meal.

[Busboy]

You've got to have the nose for it. 

My mother had a nose for good food.  She and I did a lot of driving in the rural South when I was around college age, various pilgrammages to visit family here and there and then once we took our time driving to Houston.  I was an uncomfortable teenager (also raised a Yankee) and we arrived in Crowley Louisianna at sunset.  There was a long strip of abandoned shop fronts and it seemed to me there was absolutely nothing there.  In fact I think I remember tumbleweed and clouds of sand and remember the clunk clunk of us driving over the rairoad tracks, taking a U turn, because mama saw something, and the clunk clunk back over.  She'd seen a sign.  Hand painted "Crawfish Tonight" was all it said.  The room was completely white and flourescently lit with one flickering bulb.  I don't remember people speaking much.  And we paid out 5 dollars and got the big plate.  Steaming, heaping piles of crawfish fresh from a spicy boil and cups of melted butter.  We ate a whole platter and then another, and then we ordered one more and took it back to the hotel room.  It was the first time I ever took a photo of food.

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That's what keeps me going.

[touaregsand]

You've got to have the nose for it. 

My mother had a nose for good food.  She and I did a lot of driving in the rural South when I was around college age, various pilgrammages to visit family here and there and then once we took our time driving to Houston.  I was an uncomfortable teenager (also raised a Yankee) and we arrived in Crowley Louisianna at sunset.  There was a long strip of abandoned shop fronts and it seemed to me there was absolutely nothing there.  In fact I think I remember tumbleweed and clouds of sand and remember the clunk clunk of us driving over the rairoad tracks, taking a U turn, because mama saw something, and the clunk clunk back over.  She'd seen a sign.  Hand painted "Crawfish Tonight" was all it said.  The room was completely white and flourescently lit with one flickering bulb.  I don't remember people speaking much.  And we paid out 5 dollars and got the big plate.  Steaming, heaping piles of crawfish fresh from a spicy boil and cups of melted butter.  We ate a whole platter and then another, and then we ordered one more and took it back to the hotel room.  It was the first time I ever took a photo of food.

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I think most of us on this thread are in agreement that it is possible to find good to fantastic food pretty much anywere. The question is the degree of difficulty.

I had fantastic Mexican food in North Carolina of all places. The place was in a mall and everything was fresh. It was an hour away from my hotel. It was a tip from another business traveler.

EDIT: My dining companions were from smaller cities and they thought it was really upscale Mexican dining. In a mall.

Edited July 4, 2005 by touaregsand (log)

[hjshorter]

We held our tongues -- though even the kids burst out laughing once we got back into the car -- and tipped well, but it was a way-too-typical example of how awful out-of-the-way U.S. restaurants with pretentions of sophistication can be.

Too often -- one could say, always -- in rural America, any attempt at dinner above the diner level descends into parody. What's up with that? Why is it so hard to get a decent meal outside The Big Town?  How can we come together to make this work?

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Not just those with pretensions of sophitication. I have had diner-type meals at local places, places that we are always exhorted to frequent over the evil evil chains, that have left me crying for damned McDonalds because the food was so bad.

[abadoozy]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this same subject myself, as I live in a town that makes Lexington, VA look like Paris. It's a complex subject, but from my perspective it comes down to education. Namely, in a lot of small towns, people haven't had any experience with truly good food. Sure, there's the one place in town that makes great burgers, or decent sub sandwiches, but overall, people simply don't know the difference between a plate of fettuccine al-Sysco and fettuccine alfredo, much less the vagaries involved in making pasta al dente or using high-quality cheese. And how could they know, when the best pasta in town is Olive Garden? Rural America is much more homogenous than city-dwellers understand.

People seem to have this idea that small town America is full of homegrown goodness – the Italian immigrants who opened a great pasta place, the Mexican family down the street who make tamales to die for. Reality is more like the guy who opened the steak place and figured out that he can microwave low-quality steaks and drown them in Sysco’s equivalent of A1 and people will pay $12.95 for that and a salad complete with pale pink tomatoes and wilted iceberg lettuce. Compared to that place – and believe me, it exists – an Olive Garden is food from heaven. When I hear about new restaurants opening here, I almost hope that they’re going to be chain restaurants, because my experiences with the locally-owned ones have been so bad. I have just about enough true-story material to do an entire piece on the various bad food & service I’ve had in this town, starting with the chef who was “too busy” to cook my meal and going on to the incredibly horrible meals they’ve found time to cook for me.

As far as asking the hotel clerk or another local, good luck. The clerks in at least one hotel here are reportedly not allowed to recommend the best restaurant in town because it competes with the mediocre hotel restaurant. Most locals don’t know what good food is; ask them for a recommendation and they’re going to send you to the places they grew up eating in. They don’t have anything to contrast them with, so they think they’re good.

I hate to be so pessimistic about this subject, but there’s no way around it. I’ve lived in my share of cities and small towns, and the small town food is more often bad than good. I told my husband before we moved back here that he’d be happy I knew how to cook, and he laughed at me. Three years later, he tells me how right I was. I have high hopes that my particular town is on the verge of changing – we have one or two really great places now – but that’s only one out of thousands.

[jsolomon]

Lexington is a nice little college town (VMI, Wshington and Lee) with a little bit of old money and a pretty downtown, so we thought we might be able to have a nice dinner out with the kids.  We weren't expecting Michelin star-level dining, but we were hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

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I don't think any college town qualifies as rural... small, maybe, but there's enough pretension there (Chadron, Nebraska, and certain small Wyoming college towns may differ) to pretty much rule out the vast majority of rurality. At least in the US...

[*Deborah*]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this same subject myself, as I live in a town that makes Lexington, VA look like Paris. It's a complex subject, but from my perspective it comes down to education. Namely, in a lot of small towns, people haven't had any experience with truly good food. Sure, there's the one place in town that makes great burgers, or decent sub sandwiches, but overall, people simply don't know the difference between a plate of fettuccine al-Sysco and fettuccine alfredo, much less the vagaries involved in making pasta al dente or using high-quality cheese. And how could they know, when the best pasta in town is Olive Garden? Rural America is much more homogenous than city-dwellers understand.

People seem to have this idea that small town America is full of homegrown goodness – the Italian immigrants who opened a great pasta place, the Mexican family down the street who make tamales to die for. Reality is more like the guy who opened the steak place and figured out that he can microwave low-quality steaks and drown them in Sysco’s equivalent of A1 and people will pay $12.95 for that and a salad complete with pale pink tomatoes and wilted iceberg lettuce. Compared to that place – and believe me, it exists – an Olive Garden is food from heaven. When I hear about new restaurants opening here, I almost hope that they’re going to be chain restaurants, because my experiences with the locally-owned ones have been so bad. I have just about enough true-story material to do an entire piece on the various bad food & service I’ve had in this town, starting with the chef who was “too busy” to cook my meal and going on to the incredibly horrible meals they’ve found time to cook for me.

As far as asking the hotel clerk or another local, good luck. The clerks in at least one hotel here are reportedly not allowed to recommend the best restaurant in town because it competes with the mediocre hotel restaurant. Most locals don’t know what good food is; ask them for a recommendation and they’re going to send you to the places they grew up eating in. They don’t have anything to contrast them with, so they think they’re good.

I hate to be so pessimistic about this subject, but there’s no way around it. I’ve lived in my share of cities and small towns, and the small town food is more often bad than good. I told my husband before we moved back here that he’d be happy I knew how to cook, and he laughed at me. Three years later, he tells me how right I was. I have high hopes that my particular town is on the verge of changing – we have one or two really great places now – but that’s only one out of thousands.

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I understand what you're saying, and I agree with much of it (how can people who've never been in a good restaurant understand good restaurant service, for example), but then I think about good home cooking, and the fact that there are good home cooks all over, so plenty of people have at least some experience of tasty food. I would speculate that people who become cooks for a living have some interest in good food...How does that translate into the dreck so many serve in so many mediocre restaurants?

I don't say this to be argumentative, merely because I find it puzzling.

[Busboy]

I've been pondering this for a couple of days in light of some of the comments -- Fat Guy's in particular -- and I'd like to throw out an idea:

In France, the omnipresence of the Michelin Guide and, perhaps, Gault-Millau significantly contributes to the quality of dining in rural France.

Why? Because a restauranteur can open up a place in even the most obscure location and know that every serious diner who passes through around lunch- or dinner-time has a reasonable chance of knowing of that restaurant's existence.

I'm not the obsessive gastro-tourist that FG portrayed earlier, but I did have my now-battered and out-of-date Guide Rouge with me when I was in France the last couple of times and used it as a go-to guide for good food wherever I was. It appears that just being listed denotes a certain minimal standard (though the one memorably, expensively, bad meal I've had in France was listed, though not recommended); I hone in on the Bib Gourmand, high quality/price ratio places and have never been disappointed (and occasionally delighted). And, of course, you can star-gaze as your budget and waiste-line allow.

A talented young chef who wants to set up shop in the beautiful foothills of the Shenandoah's (or the UP) has a problem. How does he let me know that he exists, in a way that's inexpensive for him and simple for me? Put a brochure in the racks of advertising Natural Bridge and other roadside attractions? Buy a glossy ad in the back of one of those hotel magazines they leave on the nightstand? Pit up one of those 100 foot illuminated signs like the truckstops have? It's tough.

But, if there were a U.S. or regional equivalent of Michelin, then I've thrown it in the car along with the maps and pretzels, "just in case." In fact, every food person travelling down I-81 has one, and they're likely to plan their stops around a good dinner. So the talented chef gets a free recommendation from a respected source, which also helps bring in business from that portion of the local population who don't necessarily appreciate good food but enjoy the status of dining at a starred/bibbed place; and I know where to eat when I find myself where I didn't expect to be.

Now, maybe I should be reading the Mobil Guide, but even if it's as useful as Michelin (for all Michelin's faults) it doesn't seem to be as widely read as Michelin/G-M, and thus less likely to significantly increase a restauran't chances for prosperity. And Zagat, aside from being suspect, seems very much to be a big-city guide.

[Busboy]

Lexington is a nice little college town (VMI, Wshington and Lee) with a little bit of old money and a pretty downtown, so we thought we might be able to have a nice dinner out with the kids.  We weren't expecting Michelin star-level dining, but we were hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

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I don't think any college town qualifies as rural... small, maybe, but there's enough pretension there (Chadron, Nebraska, and certain small Wyoming college towns may differ) to pretty much rule out the vast majority of rurality. At least in the US...

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There was a tractor dealership on the edge of town.

It is the county seat, but with only 6,900 people (I'm sure there are dormitories in Columbus and State College bigger than that), surrounded by mountains and farms and stocked with people who all have accents like they sing in a buegrass band, it felt pretty dang rural to me.

And, have I mentioned the food?

[abadoozy]

I understand what you're saying, and I agree with much of it (how can people who've never been in a good restaurant understand good restaurant service, for example), but then I think about good home cooking, and the fact that there are good home cooks all over, so plenty of people have at least some experience of tasty food. I would speculate that people who become cooks for a living have some interest in good food...How does that translate into the dreck so many serve in so many mediocre restaurants?

I don't say this to be argumentative, merely because I find it puzzling.

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You're not argumentative at all. In fact, after I wrote that, I was thinking about the same thing. Obviously not everyone who grows up in a small town turns into a tastebud zombie, since *I* didn't , but there are so many who simply don't think outside the box.

I think maybe part of it is that people learn not to associate good food with restaurants. I know my 70-year-old father doesn't; he hates going out, and a lot of that is because he doesn't think the food is as good as the stuff my mother makes. My mother could be the poster child for "good home cook." She doesn't make fancy food, and she doesn't have a huge repertoire, but what she does make is excellent. The sad fact is that they don't expect the same when they go out. It's like they don't go out when they want good food, they go out when they don't feel like cooking at home, and they expect that the food will be bad.

As far as how it translates into the dreck... I honestly don't know. I'm trying to think of some of the local places, and one thing that stands out is that a lot of the more popular restaurants here are second or third generation restaurants, places that someone's parents or grandparents started and now the children own them. So maybe they were really good back in the day, but over the years the kids don't show the same dedication or knowledge as their parents did, but enough people still go there out of habit to keep them in business. The made-from-scratch marinara of 1962 has been replaced by Sysco, and the meat is three grades lower than it used to be, but the name of the restaurant is the same and they still serve strong drinks, that kind of thing.