by James Natsis » Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:51 pm
Warning--This subject calls for a bit of a ramble:
I guess in a city with 6-7 million people or so one can find an audience for just about anything. As for me, I get my food diversity kicks by shuffling between several classic dishes across many ethnic food lines--keep it simple, but do it darn well! In other words, I simply don't need--nor want--20 choices of tacos, pizza, pho, burritos, hamburgers, or whatever (The folks at Trader Joe's understand this quite well--too much choice is not necessarily good). My assessment of this place based on the photos on their website is that much of the stuff is "over-cheffed." Or otherwise stated--too creative!
I am also not impressed by a bunch of overly creative/cute names of dishes, wines, concepts, etc. However, I learned many years ago that "carottes au beure" translates to "buttered carrots." But no matter how fancy you dress up the "buttered carotts," people won't pay the same in a fancy restaurant as they will for the same thing called "carottes au beure." Yep, like it or not, semantics often do count.
And a final note: malls that I've visited in recent years tend to be global gathering places where you can get Indian, Lebanese, Japanese, etc. in one place. They may not be fancy, but in many places they're a quick, solid, one-stop locale for a variety of food.
To each his own and one doesn't need a fancy title or diploma in their subjectivity regarding food preference. That's what makes this so cool. And that's what drives the never ending tweaking of the culinary experience. So would it work here? Sure, why not if placed in the right spot with the right talent and approach.
James J. Natsis