The crippling problem ... from WaPo

"The crippling problem restaurant-goers haven’t noticed but chefs are freaking out about

Behind the swinging doors of restaurant kitchens around the country, things are getting a bit more chaotic. It’s not the sort of thing diners would not have noticed, because it’s happening behind the scenes, out of view. Orders are still coming in, and plates are still coming out. But there’s a growing problem that chefs and restaurateurs are talking about more these days."

The rest: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... _fb-bottom

[Robin Garr]

I saw this article, or one much like it, recently, and it occurred to me that the closing of Winston's is perhaps related. After that first rush, the price-value ratio of culinary school - and student loans - just doesn't fit with the pay scale a recent grad can expect.

"Winston's Restaurant is currently closed for renovations.
We will reopen in 2016 to bring you a uniquely reimagined dining experience."

[Robin Garr]

"Winston's Restaurant is currently closed for renovations.
We will reopen in 2016 to bring you a uniquely reimagined dining experience."

Fresh casual! qDoba with attitude!

Maybe Chipotle without the E. coli?

"Winston's Restaurant is currently closed for renovations.
We will reopen in 2016 to bring you a uniquely reimagined dining experience."

Fresh casual! qDoba with attitude!

Hopefully not! Fast casual is getting way too much play these days. I realize it helps the owners by reducing staffing costs and problems but it certainly downgrades the customer experience significantly.

[Robin Garr]

Maybe Chipotle without the E. coli?

Be nice.

(Sorry, just kidding. Maybe I'm a Chipotle fan because organic and sustainable, but I'm not yet to the point of assuming a deep systemic issue there that couldn't have happened in any corporate food setting ... and in fact, sometimes has. )

doesn't seem to sustainable when you start making people sick... Not to mention all the sourcing problems they have had the past couple of years.

I think Chipotle is showing the limits of trying to apply "local, sustainable, organic" movements on a large scale, at least in the current agricultural market.

[Robin Garr]

I think Chipotle is showing the limits of trying to apply "local, sustainable, organic" movements on a large scale, at least in the current agricultural market.

Yeah, that's an issue all right. When everybody wants farm-to-table, the only way to give it to 'em all is to turn the farms back into the factories that sustainable farmers wanted to get away from. It's a dilemma. (See also Ryan's post about the tension between desire and availability for Royal's birds.)