I saw in the news today that restaurant chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy. I was never a fan, and I don't even know if they're around me here, but it got me to thinking that we have so rarely gone to sit-down chain restaurants in the last decade plus. The idea doesn't even appeal to me. Every few months we'll go to the local Ford's Garage, but it's rare. There have been some local independent places, but menu and price changes kind of put us off to those as well.
So what happened? The thing that I believe that has fundamentally changed is that the fast casual category is better. I don't eat fast food almost ever, unless it's just a last resort situation. Similarly, I've been to places like Friday's or Chili's so infrequently that I can't tell you the last time for either one. They lost me like 15 years ago when everything turned into microwaved crap. (My most viewed post ever is about Applebees.)
I don't know that everyone would agree with me, but Chipotle was the pioneer in fast casual. The quality is fairly consistent, everything is well seasoned, the pricing isn't bad. Some locations are better than others, definitely, but it's usually solid. The other one that I've enjoyed since is Pei Wei, the Asian fusion joint. They've been less consistent over the years, but the closest location to me does pretty well. A locally owned chain called Bento makes a solid katsu rice bowl, and sushi if that's your thing. We just found another Tex-Mex place called Torchy's that's good. It seems like those two genres are most common for fast casual. Compare anything from those places to a shitty McDonald's burger, or whatever that shit is that they call chicken. It's not even close.
I kind of wish this wasn't always the case. I miss going to a restaurant on a date night and relaxing and having some drinks and stuff. We still do that sometimes, but the good local joints aren't close to us (they tend to be north of downtown). Closer to home, it's more likely to be a handful of places on the Disney property, like Three Bridges at Coronado. Otherwise, the Epcot festivals are just as good as any fast casual, with a ton of choices.
But yeah, I do not miss the Apples and Bees or the Wendy's.
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