Why we eat at restaurants

Chit, Chat, and Chew.
Since we’re talking about food, restaurants and all that we thought we should explore the minds of the 20 – 30 something’s that have graduated from secondary learning institutions and see if their thoughts are any different than from the 40 – 60 year olds.  What we are finding is we are more alike than we thought and if you find that a little scary then consider that facebook and twitter likely wouldn’t exist without them.  From the group that brought us, “You are what you tweet” we ask these questions and find answers that you may agree with.
Why we eat at restaurants.
Why go to a restaurant when you can prepare food at home or get it tossed at  you from a food truck? Here are my top 3 reasons that have little to do with food itself:
1) When we are in a restaurant we are temporarily suspended from consumer culture. We don’t have to do anything, really. We are paying to be able to sit there, at peace. We are only asked if we would like anything else to make us even happier to be spending time there. When we want to set aside the stress of work and clear our heads– those are the times I find myself at a restaurant, my only thought on what I ought to order.
2) The total artistry of the restaurant experience. Enjoying food has become a highbrow culture, with its awards, its maestros, its televised performances. It has developed a similar cultural apparatus to the one for art, with its criticism, appreciation, memoir, and debate. But food itself is not art. It is sensory, not symbolic— there is no tragedy, no anger, only comfort, delight, maybe nostalgia. But when you treat yourself to a restaurant, you are treating yourself to a whole performance of not only food sensations, but also to people and culture.
3) The small comforts of being served. Example: Sometimes I enjoy having a waitress come by and pour coffee into a mug for me. My vision of a perfect brunch scene is: the mug is a solid color made of porcelain. The server seems to appear from nowhere to say “More coffee?”. I only need respond “Thank you.” Cheerful steam rises from a bottomless stainless steel carafe. My morning conversation continues as unbroken as shower thoughts. So hot I may only sip it.

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