My parents have pure shit taste in restaurants. Bob Evan's out here is a Denny's without the charm of a Cracker Barrel and a lower food quality than a Shoney's. Mom and dad love the place though and I ate at a Bob Evan's in four states when they came out here last year. Want to know what food is good and making money hand over fist out here? Fried Chicken places. There are small independent places all over, a few local chains that always have lines of people and then you have KFC (always empty) and Lee's (for when you hate your food to have flavor and nutrition). The one chicken place I go to is in the edge of the bad part of town and I am often the only while guy in the place. I've been there enough times that they people there recognize me. I do not give a flying fuck about the 'experience' of dining. The shit on the walls does not add to the food, and ambiance does not really do anything for me. I've eaten some damn good meals in places that maybe should have had a health inspector take a closer look. A few weekends ago I had a damn good meal in a bar that served 20 different beers on tap but had a food service attached. I want a hamburger cooked medium, and not burnt into a hockey puck. I want to be able to order a steak and have a few good sides. I want to be able to order a main dish that tastes good. Coincidentally, one of the absolutely worst pieces of meat I have every had was at a Ruth's Criss. How can a steak house fuck up a steak? Chain restaurants have a Fox News level problem. The demographic is dying and the people who partake have driven off the GenX and Millenials to the point where no amount of re-branding is going to work. The kids that came in right after me were shooed out of the malls and now they don't bother; malls are dying. Who's fault is that? Definitely not the people that kicked the kids out, nope, not them. Applebee's etc are going to be gone in 10 years when the Boomers finally get around to dying in large numbers. Can't come soon enough.Fast Casual was shutting down and dying in 2006, back when I had to design the AV systems for Hooters and Maggiano's and the fact that they lasted this long says more about the dead tastebuds of baby boomers than the fickle tastes of millennials.
Yo, I landed in Tennessee yesterday, and I'm in the airport urinal when I hear a dude at the other end holler back over his shoulder to someone in the stalls, "We goin' to Shoney's again fer Christmas this year?". Almost peed all over myself. It had to have been sarcasm/joking, all things considered. I decided I'd probably hang with them, Tennessee twangs and all. The occasional piece of reddit fodder worth posting:
After I posted that, they divided the dining room up into "South" and "North" for the livestock competitions. The only black person (sample size: ~500) happened to get seated one spot north of the room's Mason-Dixon line. Not a single vacant handicapped space parking lot. A small family, in the act of taking a selfie, accidentally fooled a performer into posing for a picture oriented 180 degrees the opposite direction. No. Booze. Anywhere in the building. Dolly Parton, wtf is wrong with you?? People unable to clap on the beat, and I don't mean some minor rushing or delays. Nowhere close to the appropriate BPM. Not a big deal, if you don't look inbred and/or you're drunk. But please see the previous paragraph. We've gotta send whoever covered those Trump rallies here to do a piece. This is so ripe! Hell, I might write up a small bit myself, later this summer.
Seems pretty normal compared to some of things that just went down here at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, in Pigeon Forge. Let me know when you see one of those man-rompers in the wild though, I think you have the better shot.