Monday, October 5, 2015.
Variations In The Chain.
It's widely believed, more by customers than by operators, that one of the advantages of chain restaurants is that as you travel across the country, you find familiar chain restaurants, with menus, dining rooms, and prices little changed as you travel. This lends a home-away-from-home effect, one that is much promoted by the restaurants. They know that most would-be customers are hesitant about going to a restaurant they've never heard of.
Of course, that removes a lot of the fun from travel, which is about having experiences different from those at home. But to take advantage of those, you have to take a step in the direction of the unknown. If you're really good at traveling, you do some homework before you go, reading guidebooks written by people like me.
The Engaged Couple (Mary Leigh and Dave , formerly known as ML and The Boy) ask me to take them to lunch. They didn't put it that way, but that's what it means, and I don't mind a bit. We settle on La Carreta, if we can go to the one in Covington. The rest of The Couple's schedule has only the quest for wedding venues. Mary Ann--who would insist that we go to the one in Mandeville because of its large alfresco dining area--is not joining us, so no problem.
I[caption id="attachment_43616" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mole with chicken at La Carreta. The bean soup is in the cup in the upper right corner.[/caption] am still sated from yesterday's brunch, and I eschew my favorite dish at the Covington La Carreta: grilled chicken with molé poblano, which they cook improbably well. The Mandeville La Carreta--even though its menu is ninety-nine percent the same as the one in Covington--doesn't have molé sauce. They say it doesn't sell. I say they never really tried to sell it.
In the absence of molé at the Mandeville store (you can always spot a chain by their calling their restaurants "stores"), the place has a dish that attracts me almost as much: bean soup. I get it every time I'm in the place (which is too often, but my desire to please the Marys supersedes my journalistic needs). It is a hundred percent consistent, a thin broth with a lot of little brown beans, thick chips of roasted pork, a high pepper level, and a few other attractions.
Meanwhile, at the Covington La Carreta, the bean soup doesn't even look the same. I think the beans may be different (wouldn't swear by that), and the cooking method decidedly unlike at the other place. It has the texture of red beans and rice, a much lower pepper quotient, and a more diffuse flavor, not nearly as exciting.
But these variations indicate that the soups are made in house, instead of coming from a commissary.
And that got me thinking about whether anyone would be interested in an article, or perhaps even a guidebook, comparing and contrasting the many branches of chain restaurants. There definitely are differences. I'll prove that with two often-stated local versions. Doesn't everybody know that the Ruth's Chris in Metairie is better than the one downtown? And that the Bud's Broiler on City Park Avenue is better than any of the other Bud's?
A moment's thought recalled an event from my early twenties that reveals this project as a bad idea. In the 1970s, I was hired to go to all the McDonald'ses in the area and drop off materials for some sort of promotion. To make it more interesting for me, I wrote an article for the Figaro weekly newspaper exploring the differences among the Mickey D's. There were many.
The job for which I was being paid, however, was at the behest of McDonald's local ad agency, which was not happy about my article. They took particular umbrage to my saying that "the Dr Peppers in all the locations were equally watery." I was supposed to have conducted a follow-up two weeks later, but they got somebody else.
What I learned then was that comparing branches of chain restaurants is about as interesting as counting ceiling tiles in a room.
I have better ways to spend my time. At tonight's NPAS rehearsal, we are reminded that the NPAS all-Stephen Sondheim concerts are a week and a half away. They will be the first ones in which I will sing. All week long I have wanted to set aside an hour to work on the songs. No such open time ever showed itself. I love being in NPAS, but like any other undertaking, it requires that something else on my calender be nudged aside.
I have also been remiss in my ticket-selling responsibilities. The two shows are on Friday the 16th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday the 18th at 3 p.m., at Fuhrmann Auditorium in downtown Covington (317 N. Jefferson Ave., to be exact). Tickets are $20, and can be had at npas.info. I will give an autographed copy of my book Hungry Town to the first four ticketholders at each show who approach me afterwards in the hall. NPAS is a non-profit org.
Mole with chicken at La Carreta. The bean soup is in the cup in the upper right corner.[/caption] am still sated from yesterday's brunch, and I eschew my favorite dish at the Covington La Carreta: grilled chicken with molé poblano, which they cook improbably well. The Mandeville La Carreta--even though its menu is ninety-nine percent the same as the one in Covington--doesn't have molé sauce. They say it doesn't sell. I say they never really tried to sell it.
In the absence of molé at the Mandeville store (you can always spot a chain by their calling their restaurants "stores"), the place has a dish that attracts me almost as much: bean soup. I get it every time I'm in the place (which is too often, but my desire to please the Marys supersedes my journalistic needs). It is a hundred percent consistent, a thin broth with a lot of little brown beans, thick chips of roasted pork, a high pepper level, and a few other attractions.
Meanwhile, at the Covington La Carreta, the bean soup doesn't even look the same. I think the beans may be different (wouldn't swear by that), and the cooking method decidedly unlike at the other place. It has the texture of red beans and rice, a much lower pepper quotient, and a more diffuse flavor, not nearly as exciting.
But these variations indicate that the soups are made in house, instead of coming from a commissary.
And that got me thinking about whether anyone would be interested in an article, or perhaps even a guidebook, comparing and contrasting the many branches of chain restaurants. There definitely are differences. I'll prove that with two often-stated local versions. Doesn't everybody know that the Ruth's Chris in Metairie is better than the one downtown? And that the Bud's Broiler on City Park Avenue is better than any of the other Bud's?
A moment's thought recalled an event from my early twenties that reveals this project as a bad idea. In the 1970s, I was hired to go to all the McDonald'ses in the area and drop off materials for some sort of promotion. To make it more interesting for me, I wrote an article for the Figaro weekly newspaper exploring the differences among the Mickey D's. There were many.
The job for which I was being paid, however, was at the behest of McDonald's local ad agency, which was not happy about my article. They took particular umbrage to my saying that "the Dr Peppers in all the locations were equally watery." I was supposed to have conducted a follow-up two weeks later, but they got somebody else.
What I learned then was that comparing branches of chain restaurants is about as interesting as counting ceiling tiles in a room.
I have better ways to spend my time. At tonight's NPAS rehearsal, we are reminded that the NPAS all-Stephen Sondheim concerts are a week and a half away. They will be the first ones in which I will sing. All week long I have wanted to set aside an hour to work on the songs. No such open time ever showed itself. I love being in NPAS, but like any other undertaking, it requires that something else on my calender be nudged aside.
I have also been remiss in my ticket-selling responsibilities. The two shows are on Friday the 16th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday the 18th at 3 p.m., at Fuhrmann Auditorium in downtown Covington (317 N. Jefferson Ave., to be exact). Tickets are $20, and can be had at npas.info. I will give an autographed copy of my book Hungry Town to the first four ticketholders at each show who approach me afterwards in the hall. NPAS is a non-profit org.
