Hooters Girl Jade Amber (VIDEO)

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Dead (Once-Treasured) Diners

It's happening all over. 

At NYT, "The Treasured Diners and Hidden Haunts That Covid-19 Closed for Good":

We gather today to mourn the 150-year-old restaurant that served up platters of fried chicken and creamed corn to Abilene, Kan. To bid farewell to the New Orleans cafe that was a destination for huge crab omelets and endless conversation. To raise one last glass to the tavern in Cambridge, Mass., where the regulars arrived at 8 a.m. and the Austin diner where Janis Joplin nearly sang the neon lights off the walls.

They were local landmarks — watering holes, shops and haunts that weathered recessions and gentrification, world wars and the Great Depression, only to succumb this year to the economic ravages of the coronavirus. This is their obituary.

Thousands of businesses have closed during the pandemic, but the demise of so many beloved hangouts cuts especially deep. They were woven into the identity of big cities and small towns, their walls lined with celebrity photos and Best Of awards. Some had been around a century. Others, like the Ma’am Sir Filipino restaurant in Los Angeles, needed just a few years to win the hearts of their neighborhoods.

Their closures have left blank spaces across the country as owners liquidate their memorabilia and wistful customers leave social-media tributes recalling first dates and marriage proposals. And there are new worries: If these institutions could not survive, what can? And who will be left standing, to hold our memories and knit our communities together, when this pandemic is over?

RTWT.

Also on Twitter: 

I picked up breakfast at our diner today, caught up with the owner like always, and asked how she’s doing. She shook her head as her eyes welled above her mask. I knew what that meant. She turned her back to her staff saying she didn’t want to cry in front of her employees.

She, like millions of others, is desperate for help from the federal government. She said the first round of PPP saved her business, but that was a long time ago and she’s on the brink again. She has followed the rules & spent money to build outdoor dining, but winter is here.

We all have done our best to support small businesses this year, but it’s not enough. It is infuriating that it took Congress this long to get a relief bill and unconscionable that the President sits on it while our friends and neighbors fight for their lives. Shame.

 

Staten Island Pub Declares Itself an 'Autonomous Zone' After Cuomo and De Blasio Impose NEW New York Restaurant Lockdown Order

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IT’S THE WINTER OF LOVE ON STATEN ISLAND: NYC Pub Borrows a Page From Leftists in Lockdown Dispute."

French Cuisine in the California Desert

I've been out to Yucca Valley over the past few weekends, as my mom took a turn for the worst and died last Thursday from lung cancer at the age of 82. It wasn't a surprise, but of course it's devastating to lose a parent. We're having an intimate service on April 26th and a celebration of my mom's life, with about a hundred people invited, sometime in June.

Meanwhile, my older sister mentioned this restaurant a couple of times when I've been out there visiting, and here's an interesting write-up at the New York Times, "An Oasis for Brunch Thrives in the California Desert":

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. — The first time I drove east from Los Angeles to Flamingo Heights, I came to a stop behind a truck with a fairly blunt sticker on its sliding rear window: “Go Back to L.A.”

It was a reminder that this rural town, just north of Joshua Tree National Park, has an uneasy relationship with outsiders, who drop in by the hundreds to camp, or rent luxuriously renovated homes posted on Airbnb, take guided sound baths and hike with Nubian goats. After rainfall, when the pale desert dandelions and purple pincushions stagger into bloom, tourists come to geotag the flowers and take selfies in the shifting, mystifyingly beautiful desert light. And then? They’re gone.

Nikki Hill, a chef, and Claire Wadsworth, a musician, were married and living in Los Angeles in 2015 when they visited for the weekend and spotted a double rainbow. But instead of going back to the city, they bought an old diner on Highway 247 for about $30,000, turning it into an afternoon-only restaurant that adds a new dimension to the region’s culinary identity.

It’s a balancing act, but La Copine manages to serve the kind of seasonal, reassuringly confident food that appeals to both brunching families and retreat-seekers on a cleanse, in an inclusive dining room run with joy and exuberance. Though from a distance, the restaurant still looks like a diner on a dusty stretch of road — a little pit stop with a big lawless parking lot — the two women have turned it into a hub for the community and its flux of visitors.

There is no doubt when spring has come to the high desert. La Copine’s tables are piled with crisp haricots verts dressed in tahini, and creamy new potatoes tasting of rosemary and duck fat, dressed with aioli so that the softest parts of the potato become smushed and almost indistinguishable from the sauce.

All of the salads at La Copine, and there are usually two or three on the menu, are hunks — burly and satisfying, full of delicious secrets. You might find, under crisp, generously dressed leaves, a smattering of fried capers or a treasure of syrupy sherry-soaked dates.

The fried chicken thighs, dredged with potato flour, have a delicately crisp lace around the skin, which is sweet with hot honey. And the stack of layered eggplant, baked with a mellow tomato sauce until it’s meltingly soft and tender, doesn’t announce that it’s vegan. It is.

Though at first, Ms. Hill shopped at supermarkets and drove to the lower desert to find produce, she now gets her fruits and vegetables from farms in California, including ones in nearby Pipes Canyon, Bakersfield and Chino.

The menu is concise; even with the wine list and desserts, it fits on a single page. Seating is first-come, first-served, and regulars know to look for the scribbled list attached to a clipboard by the bar outside, so they can put their names down as they arrive.

Most dishes are composed with speed and efficiency, rather than prettiness in mind — no wasted movements in the kitchen, no superfluous components on the plate. Ms. Hill, who cooked at Scopa and Huckleberry in Los Angeles, takes a sincere, straightforward approach to cooking, building dishes that tend to underpromise and overdeliver.

Opening a restaurant in Los Angeles, or any major city, would have required bigger loans and a much larger investment, but after putting another $30,000 or so into furniture and repairs — fixing the leaky roof and replacing the walk-in compressor, repairing the appliances on the line and sanding the walls — the couple was ready for business...

Still more.

IHOP Changed its Name in Fake Marketing Ploy?

Hmm, seemed legit at the time.

At the Chicago Tribune, "IHOP has come clean. The pancake chain has acknowledged it faked its IHOb name change to promote its burgers."

And at Instapundit, "UNEXPECTEDLY: In shocking twist, IHOP acknowledges it faked IHOb name change to promote burgers. “That will come to no surprise to some Internet sleuths, who combed through federal records, finding no proof of the restaurant officially changing its name”."

Could b pic.twitter.com/WBX8nKiqCb

— IHOP (@IHOP) June 6, 2018

Oldest McDonald's Restaurant

It's at Lakewood Boulevard and Florence Avenue in Downey. I drove by last week when I was going over to Pico Rivera to shop for used books. Amazing. Turns out there's a museum on site as well.

.@SalenaZito Had to pull over to the corner gas station to get photos of this original McDonald’s, at the corner of Florence and Lakewood Boulevard, in Downey. pic.twitter.com/HZlj8InV5S

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 5, 2018

Also has a sign saying, “Welcome to the world’s oldest-operating McDonald’s.” pic.twitter.com/aTPvfo9U2k

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 5, 2018

Dressing Up for Dinner

At Town & Country, "How Jackie Kennedy Is Responsible for the End of Restaurant Dress Codes" (via Maggie's Farm).

While we were out to eat last night I saw a group of three at the next table, and the dude — who had like a 1980s "new romantic" haircut (or early 1990s grunge cut), with those ear-stretcher plug-expander thingies on his earlobes — was kicking all the way back, placing his feet on the vacant chair straight across from him.

The first thing I thought was how my dad would have freaked out if he ever saw me do anything like at that at a restaurant, much less at home. He'd have rapped me over my knuckles with the back of his dinner knife!

Hardee's 'Fantasty' Bacon Three-Way Thickburger (VIDEO)

Heh.

There's a fairly obvious double entendre at this commercial.

At the caption, "With bacon strips, bacon jam, and bacon crumbles, this burger is a bacon lover's fantasy":



Carl's Jr.'s not running this ad on the West Coast, for shame, lol.

'When traditional religion is rejected, the odds are pretty good that something cultish will be chosen to replace it...'

Heh. So true.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "CALIFORNIA VEGANS ASSEMBLE THE CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD: Top L.A. Vegan Restaurant Owners Receiving Death Threats for Slaughtering Animals."

Heh, McDonald's is Doomed

Lolz.

I love McDonald's. I just never eat there any more.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "IF McDONALD’S GOES UNDER IT WILL BE BECAUSE THEY FOLLOWED LIBERALS TO DISASTER..."

Stolen Tips, Dine and Dash, Counterfeit Money: O.C. Restaurant Workers Confront Crime on Front Lines

This is mind-boggling.

Sure glad I don't have to deal with it, but then, I'm sad that these folks do.

At the O.C. Register, "Pilfered tips, dine and dash, fake cash: It's tough out on the restaurant front lines":

For workers on the front lines of Orange County’s bustling hospitality industry, things can get downright inhospitable. Even dangerous.

Kerry Soderstrom, a former waitress at a bar in downtown Huntington Beach, recalls the trio – two men and a woman in their 20s – who caught her eye one night. She had a feeling they were getting ready to skip out on their $50 food and booze bill.

Sure enough, when Soderstrom was busy helping another customer, they bolted. She gave chase and confronted them in a darkened parking garage.

“I felt panic and an instant need to catch them to avoid having to be held personally responsible for their bill with the bar,” said Soderstrom, who now works at an investment bank. “At the time I really didn’t consider the danger of actually pursuing them into the parking structure, which looking back now it could have been very dangerous.”

That turned out to be the case a week ago for a 28-year-old waitress at the Mexico Lindo restaurant in Anaheim. When she confronted four people who left without paying, they ran over her legs with their car and fled, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

Rowshaid Pellum, 24, of Cerritos, along with Santeea Ralph, 23; Markeisha Williams, 18; and Shyteice Miles, 19, all of Long Beach, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Also last week, Francisco Cardenas, 26, pleaded guilty to felony assault and misdemeanor petty theft for attacking a 55-year-old retired police officer after trying to grab a tip jar at a Starbucks in Huntington Beach.

Dine-and-dash crime isn’t that common in Orange County, service workers say. But when it happens, police and other officials say, wait staff should avoid heroics and report the theft to police.

“They should never chase after someone else,” said Russ Bendel, president of the Orange County Restaurant Association and owner of the Vine restaurant in San Clemente. “It’s better to bite the bullet.”

The problem, though, is that though it’s illegal for restaurant operators to withhold tips from servers to cover dine-and-dash bills, the practice is still fairly common, said Maria Myotte, a spokeswoman for Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents 13,000 hospitality workers nationwide.

“A lot of servers get negative paychecks,” she said. “The environment is such that it’s their personal responsibility for that money.”

Tip jars have become ubiquitous at checkout counters, making easy targets for thieves looking to grab some quick cash.

In the case of the attempted Starbucks theft on March 7, Scott Fahey was placing money in the tip jar at a walk-up window at Brookhurst and Adams Avenue in Huntington Beach when Cardenas rode up on a bicycle and tried to grab the container.

Fahey, 55, refused to release the jar, which held three $1 bills and change. He said Cardenas punched him and bashed him in the head with a metal sign. Cardenas fled when Fahey reached for his Glock 26 and warned Cardenas he would shoot...

It's bad all over, dang.

Keep reading.

Confessions of a Hooters Waitress

It's hard out there for a Hooters hottie.

At London's Daily Mail, "Confessions of a Hooters waitress: From $100 tips to fending off 'pervy' men and dealing with angry wives - the truth about America's 'working class sorority'."

Thank the Left's Minimum Wage Protests: McDonald’s to Offer Burger Orders by Machine

Leftists are so stupid. Demands for a $15.00 minimum wage, which have been targeted particularly at McDonald's, will backfire, resulting in more automation at the restaurant chain, and the increasing loss of entry-level jobs.

But then, leftists destroy everything they get their hands on.

At WaPo, "McDonald’s fresh hope to turn around slumping sales: Ordering burgers from a machine":

If you’ve ever felt guilty ordering at McDonald’s, the fast-food mega-chain has just the fix: You can now order your own quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger from a welcoming, non-judging machine.

Battling the worst sales slump in a decade and competition from build-your-own upstarts like Chipotle and Smashburger, McDonald’s is expanding a test concept built around ordering via tablet. Just tap on a screen and watch as your burger’s toppings (and calories) pile on, then wait for an employee to bring it over. No human interaction necessary.

McDonald’s move towards dehumanization, launched as a pilot last winter and expanded across San Diego last week, is part of a larger trend of chain eateries turning tablets into your full-time restaurant buddy: equal parts menu, server and paycheck. Applebee’s, Panera Bread and even airport bars have installed tablets to allow diners to order food or booze without a wait....

With tablet ordering, “you can serve more lunches per hour, and the customers, since so many use their smartphone for just about everything, see it as more convenient,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Chuck Pinson-Rose said. “We’re moving toward a point where you have to have these sorts of things. … But it hasn’t gained universal acceptance yet. I don’t know if it’s really going to move the [sales] needle in a big way.”

The tablets could give McDonald’s a few added bonuses outside sales, including helping whisk data more directly back to headquarters on what customers really want. A workforce of tablets could even potentially allow the firm to cut back in staffing. Pay at McDonald’s and other fast-food giants have recently been slammed in nationwide protests...

More.

Yes, so less people will be able to find jobs.

Burger King Goes Full Homo

Heh.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "I Don't Even Want to Know What's In the 'Secret Sauce'."

Hot New Dining Trend: No Reservations and Four-Hour Waits at Trendy D.C. Restaurants

I'll pass, thank you.

At the Washington Post, "No reservations? This restaurant trend has become harder to swallow."

Tom Sietsema sees ageism and inhospitality when restaurants force guests to line up and wait.

Starbucks to Expand Alcohol Sales Across U.S.

I'm not exactly sure why I'd be going to Starbucks for a drink.

I rarely have coffee over there any more as it is. But hey, it's business.

At the New York Post, "Starbucks to expand beer, wine sales throughout U.S."

And checking Google I see this previously from the O.C. Register, "Starbucks adds beer, wine in south O.C."

"Starbucks Evenings" they're calling it. I'm sure all the cool hipsters will be swarming over there for cheese and Cabernet.

Quiznos Files for Bankruptcy

I've eaten there just one time. I wasn't all that impressed, but it's mostly that I like other restaurants better.

At Business Week, "Quiznos Follows Sbarro Into Bankruptcy as Competition Grows":

Quiznos, founded in 1981, operates restaurants in all 50 states and 34 countries, according to its website. It has about 2,100 stores, all but seven of them franchised, according to today’s statement.

The chain sells toasted sub-style sandwiches and recently added pasta dishes, such as chicken pesto and macaroni and cheese with bacon, to its menu.

“They expanded too fast, they had a weak franchisee network,” Goldin said. “Once the Paneras of the world came along, I think, many consumers thought that was a better quality price point. And Subway came in on the lower end and aggressively promoted themselves as fresh.”

Classic French Toast at Bravo Burgers

I had breakfast with my wife on Tuesday, when I was out running errands most of the day. Bravo Burgers serves a very delicious breakfast, with good coffee and a nice restaurant ambiance. And my wife loves it because she can get in and out of there in a half-an-hour and be back on the job. I recommend it!

'Invisible Driver' Orders Food at Drive-Up Window

This is something else, at Scallywag and Vagabond, "Drive thru invisible driver prank goes viral. A metaphor on the American fast food experience…":

Amid Falling Profit, McDonald's to Revisit 'Dollar Menu'

At the Wall Street Journal:

McDonald's Corp. reported a 3.5% decline in third-quarter earnings as sales slowed more dramatically than expected because of a sluggish economy and a disappointing marketing campaign.

McDonald's predicted its sales and earnings growth will "remain pressured" over the next few quarters by the weak economy, and conceded that it needs to be more aggressive in advertising low prices.

As the world's largest fast-food chain, McDonald's has touted its global scale and mix of both value-oriented and higher-priced menu items as key to enduring tough economic times. But the once-resilient restaurant operator isn't weathering the current market turbulence as well as it did the crisis of 2009 because the downturn is more widespread and competition is closing the gap.

"We face softening demand, heightened competition and rising costs in many of our markets," Chief Financial Officer Pete Bensen said. In a weaker economy, customers tend to stop getting extras like drinks and desserts and premium items like Angus burgers, which all offer higher profits to McDonald's. Plus, they may not go out to eat as frequently.

McDonald's shares were down 4.5% to $88.72 in 4 p.m. composite trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, as Wall Street analysts were expecting an increase in per-share profit for the quarter, not a decline.


Chief Executive Don Thompson said McDonald's move earlier this year to shift its marketing focus in the U.S. to the higher-priced and more profitable "Extra Value Menu" from the successful "Dollar Menu" didn't "resonate as strongly" with consumers.

"We're going back to talk of the Dollar Menu," Mr. Thompson said.