Curious to get Trag's (and other foodie RMers') thoughts on this piece / phenomenon

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/ ... rger-quest

great read, thanks for that..I'll have to comment later

The piece itself is garbage. It's Meta-Journalism Lite, with the added negative of positioning the author as more intelligent than his subject, and more self-aware than every other listicle author on the internet. And this passage is particularly painful:


No, you cynical asshole, I've never done this. And later he inflates his own importance, but then immediately tries to backpedal on it while simultaneously offering some folksy wisdom:



Painful.

As for the broader narrative -- that of our converging love affairs with foodie culture, listicles, and social media -- the phenomenon is in essence no different than the Zagat's and Fodor's lists of yore, but with the modern elements of click-sharing and compulsory travel eating ("Hey, let's google 'best burger in Portland' and then go eat that burger right away!"). And I'll grant that this passage is insightful:



Yes, this is pretty common now, and it's sad. It's also precisely why the wife and I have given up on chasing down all the popular restaurants while traveling to a given place. We're much more interested in places much like Stanich's, not because it made the top spot on a list, but because the ethos pre-dates the modern foodie trends, and offers something affordable and yummy.

Steven Stanich is aware of his options for the restaurant's survival: He'll either have to partner with a financial backer, or franchise. Either one is viable, but taking the author's description of Stanich at face value, I'd say Stanich's own worst enemy is himself; it sounds like he'll talk himself to death long before he irons out the terms of a favorable partnership deal.

Our food system is inherently broken, and every successful restaurant carries with it a host of ethical concerns. Is it good for Stanich's to continue to thrive if they're offering antibiotic-laden beef, or not paying their workers fairly? And for more in vogue restaurants with a higher price point, like Reed's vacation dining target of Roberta's in Brooklyn, are the premiums paid for prime real estate and farm-to-table produce indicative of the growing economic disparity? I'd say yes.

Expensive places with top-shelf ingredients and cutting-edge techniques will always have a market. I'm way more interested in cheap eats that taste great and endeavor to protect the environment, and value the lives of both the animals and agricultural laborers in the supply chain.

If Stanich's is down for the count, so be it; there are a million other places just like it, and as has already been mentioned, he has options for the restaurant's continued operations. A sudden flow of social media-driven foot traffic should neither make nor break a good family restaurant; I've worked in kitchens that were the size of my bedroom, but that put out world class food night after night. Determination and problem solving are the real keys to success in the food industry, plus a little luck. Stanich doesn't seem too interested in either of those things, and the author claims and undue amount of ownership over the outcome of a restaurant that has been operating since the 1940s.

We drove 22 miles into the country around Farmington. There were meadows and apple orchards. White fences trailed through the rolling fields. Soon the sign started appearing. THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. We counted five signs before we reached the site. There were 40 cars and a tour bus in the makeshift lot. We walked along a cowpath to the slightly elevated spot set aside for viewing and photographing. All the people had cameras; some had tripods, telephoto lenses, filter kits. A man in a booth sold postcards and slides -- pictures of the barn taken from the elevated spot. We stood near a grove of trees and watched the photographers. Murray maintained a prolonged silence, occasionally scrawling some notes in a little book.

"No one sees the barn," he said finally.

A long silence followed.

"Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn."

He fell silent once more. People with cameras left the elevated site, replaced by others.

We're not here to capture an image, we're here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies."

There was an extended silence. The man in the booth sold postcards and slides.

"Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We've agreed to be part of a collective perception. It literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism."

Another silence ensued.

"They are taking pictures of taking pictures," he said.”

agreed, foodies ruin everything

the stanich's thing is on stanich, as business man. endless restaurants have endured the foodie spotlight and continued to thrive.

they guy didn't need to also rank stanich's parents graves as the best in america too though

it just set an unrealistic expectation

A follow-up to this.

https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/11/28/d ... -troubles/

Turns out that while I'm sure the sudden new attention was a factor, juuust maybe the owner of the place was also a flagrant horrorshow. The original food writer claims to have been unaware, and in the piece only vaguely alluded to "personal problems."

"On April 18, 2014, Stanich was arrested for choking his then-wife in front of their then-teenage son at their home in Northeast Portland.
Documents show his wife, then 57, had been a manager at Stanich's for 19 years before being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

"Stanich pleaded no contest to charges of misdemeanor harassment and strangulation, and was sentenced to four years of probation.

"He was prohibited from owning a gun or contacting his wife. He was required to undergo treatment for his drinking, barred from consuming alcohol and, in a stiff prohibition for a bar owner, prohibited from entering establishments that primarily serve alcohol, except for work."

And it goes on from there.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/12/mille ... -tuna.html

I buy the trader joe albacore in oil...

good read

http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/12/mario ... atali.html

that was great, thanks doug

Great article. Thanks for the link, Doug.

Mrs Wease and I have been making our way thru past seasons of Masterchef, and I never realized that Joe was Mario’s partner.

we should have a food articles thread i guess..

https://www.eater.com/2018/12/11/181360 ... e-nebraska

i started one already i think

also, "cage free" doesn't mean shit. "Free Range" and "Without Antibiotics" only.

i only barely searched..

I realize now that when people in Houston say "NYC bagels are better" they really just mean that they are easier and quicker to get on a daily basis in New York.

No. You probably just didn’t have a great NYC bagel. You’ll have to go back.

i have never had a bagel in houston and would be shocked if there aren’t high quality purveyors at this point

but ess a bagel

but Montreal bagels are better than all

and it’s not like you just walk into any place in NY and ask for a bagel and they are great

there are plenty of shitty bagels in new york city

Yes shitty bagels exist in NYC. But the best ones are undoubtedly there. It’s the combination of the technological know-how and the Catskills water supply.