When I visited the US I was confused why there were so many dogshit restaurant chains and how they managed to stay open. Surely nobody is eating at these places.
My sister spent a year abroad in the US and my little brother asked her to buy him some American candy. (We’re European)
When she got back, she had a selection of 6 different US candy brands for him. He tried all of them and, as a 10-year-old, deemed them inedible cause they were way too sweet and sugary.
It used to be the only option really available throughout most of the middle of the country. I suspect nostalgia is the only thing really pulling it forward at this point, I genuinely never see anyone eating it.
The dogshit restaurants we have are a mixture of two actual good things that, like everything else in the US, was bled out of existence. The diner experience, and the inherent transient nature of American society. Being able to travel cross country has always been a relatively easy thing to do until recently, and eating while traveling is a no brainer. The food aspect used to be handled by large numbers of diners that had good quality food (relatively obviously) but has been replaced in large part by chain restaurants. Coincide this with the difficulty and expense of moving and you got a bunch of places that are almos comically bad.
The food aspect used to be handled by large numbers of diners that had good quality food (relatively obviously) but has been replaced in large part by chain restaurants.
This might be a bit rosy of a view of diners – I’m sure plenty were mediocre or bad. Not exactly the same, but my dad told me about traveling before and after cheap chain hotels sprung up everywhere, and said a real benefit of chains was that even if the quality wasn’t spectacular, you knew more or less what you were getting, which is itself valuable.
That’s probably true to some extent, I do be lovin a diner. But I would still argue that chain quality has gone down overall to the point that I genuinely believe Applebees straight up microwaves their food. Diners are and have always been a gamble, but I still stand behind the idea that the chain restaurant is essentially the diner concept mass produced across the United States in place of those diners.
Call me autistic but if your definition of “always” is “as long as diners existed” I’m thinking you don’t actually know what always means. Or then still anything about history, if I go by like 1912 according to wikipedia we’re still about a year out from the first intercontinental highway and about 50 from there being a giant star next to always saying only applicable to white males
There are large chunks of the US where these restaurants are the only restaurants. So if you want to eat out, you’re eating at a dogshit restaurant chain.
Also they have large parking lots and are located on major commute corridors, which feels welcoming to the average suburbanite, who thinks they’re a car.
Cracker Barrels tend to set up shop near hotels. I assume that’s the only way they stay open. Being slightly better than the free hotel breakfast. I know it works on me… We usually look at what food is near any hotel before booking.
When I visited the US I was confused why there were so many dogshit restaurant chains and how they managed to stay open. Surely nobody is eating at these places.
I think that the average American’s standard of what constitutes good food is pretty low by Asian or even continental European standards.
Not that the US doesn’t have some standout cuisines and dishes, but the food the average American consumes is all corn syrup and chemicals to me.
My sister spent a year abroad in the US and my little brother asked her to buy him some American candy. (We’re European)
When she got back, she had a selection of 6 different US candy brands for him. He tried all of them and, as a 10-year-old, deemed them inedible cause they were way too sweet and sugary.
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Hershey’s tastes like vomit to me, I don’t know how anyone would eat it.
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It used to be the only option really available throughout most of the middle of the country. I suspect nostalgia is the only thing really pulling it forward at this point, I genuinely never see anyone eating it.
The dogshit restaurants we have are a mixture of two actual good things that, like everything else in the US, was bled out of existence. The diner experience, and the inherent transient nature of American society. Being able to travel cross country has always been a relatively easy thing to do until recently, and eating while traveling is a no brainer. The food aspect used to be handled by large numbers of diners that had good quality food (relatively obviously) but has been replaced in large part by chain restaurants. Coincide this with the difficulty and expense of moving and you got a bunch of places that are almos comically bad.
This might be a bit rosy of a view of diners – I’m sure plenty were mediocre or bad. Not exactly the same, but my dad told me about traveling before and after cheap chain hotels sprung up everywhere, and said a real benefit of chains was that even if the quality wasn’t spectacular, you knew more or less what you were getting, which is itself valuable.
That’s probably true to some extent, I do be lovin a diner. But I would still argue that chain quality has gone down overall to the point that I genuinely believe Applebees straight up microwaves their food. Diners are and have always been a gamble, but I still stand behind the idea that the chain restaurant is essentially the diner concept mass produced across the United States in place of those diners.
Always?
No that’s quite clearly stated but I always get pissed about anyone saying $country has done something forever because it’s never true.
We’re looking at like, what, 40 years of post WW2-time where that was true? That’s a blip! A blip, I tell you!
Also there’s still swaths of the country you can’t visit as a black person with anything approaching relative ease.
It’s tru lol but still it’s not like it makes sent to talk about diners as we know them in like the 1800’s or something.
I don’t think my great-grandmas birth-century is enough of a far fetched past to disregard. I met that woman.
The equivalent of a diner in the 1800s would be a tea house or something like that
Call me autistic but if your definition of “always” is “as long as diners existed” I’m thinking you don’t actually know what always means. Or then still anything about history, if I go by like 1912 according to wikipedia we’re still about a year out from the first intercontinental highway and about 50 from there being a giant star next to always saying only applicable to white males
There are large chunks of the US where these restaurants are the only restaurants. So if you want to eat out, you’re eating at a dogshit restaurant chain.
Also they have large parking lots and are located on major commute corridors, which feels welcoming to the average suburbanite, who thinks they’re a car.
Cracker Barrels tend to set up shop near hotels. I assume that’s the only way they stay open. Being slightly better than the free hotel breakfast. I know it works on me… We usually look at what food is near any hotel before booking.