NPR: The Joy of Chain Dining

The Joy of Chain Dining

A New York Times article got more than a few BPPers talking about their loves and hates of chain restaurants. The Times dining coverage gets the most attention when it reviews the fantastically expensive and the impossibly exclusive.

So this piece stood out, since it reviewed several chain restaurants that normal people, far from Manhattan, go to every day, like Outback and Olive Garden. It caused a bit of a buzz online, even on blogs that normally stick to politics.

We'll talk to one of the Times reviewers and one of the bloggers on Thursday's show. Working on this segment got all of us talking, and thinking about our favorite chains. Someone proposed a BPP staff field trip to the nearby Times Square Red Lobster (the one with the really giant, really glowing, really red, rotating lobster out front). For me, there is one chain that towers over all others: Arby's. On a recent road trip, I swerved a car across two lanes of traffic to pull into one and grab a Beef 'n Cheddar. (Don't worry. No one was ever in danger, and the car was a rental.) Sadly, the king of marinated beef doesn't have a franchise in Manhattan. Or so I thought...

Crack research finds that there has been an Arby's, within easy walking distance of NPR, for nearly two years! I feel like every meal I have eaten since June 2006 is a betrayal of all the goodness Arby's employees work so hard to get between the warm, toasted onion roll. And yes, I've heard the story that Arby's meat starts in liquid form. It ain't true, and were it so, the Beef 'n Cheddar would have a place in my heart still. As soon as I'm done here, I'm strolling over to the Manhattan Mall (really, we have malls too) scarfing down a BnC, maybe two.

Mark Garrison

4:17 PM ET | 05- 7-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

i read the article too and passed it around at work...so last nite i didn't feel like cookin so i went to chilli's...they tried really hard to have me try one of their marquiritas...but i opted for sam on tap and i completely enjoyed my salmon, vegetable medley and a side of baked beans! yummy!

Sent by jan | 5:07 PM ET | 05-07-2008

Chick-fil-a is the one chain we go to constantly. Now that they're being built outside of malls, they usually have a play area. With two kids, that's important. The chicken's good, too.

Sent by Susie | 9:05 PM ET | 05-07-2008

i have heard rumors of a chick-fil-a in an nyu dining hall somewhere... why should they get to keep it all to themselves?! perks of really expensive tuition?

Sent by tehresa | 2:40 AM ET | 05-08-2008

"And yes, I've heard the story that Arby's meat starts in liquid form. It ain't true..."

When I worked at Arby's, the roast beef came in plastic bags and was more like a semisolid goo than anything resembling an actual piece of a cow. Yeah, it's technically beef, but it's "beef" in the same way that Spam is "pork." To call it marinated beef like you do in the post is incredibly generous, to say the least.

I wouldn't eat that stuff if you paid me.

Sent by Ed | 10:14 AM ET | 05-08-2008

I've been known to take visiting European friends to the Cheesecake Factory. And you know what? They LOVE it. What's a more classic American dining experience than guzzling from a ginormous margarita while you peruse a huge ad-filled menu offering Asian, Mexican, Southwestern, comfort food, and Italian options, then finishing it all off with a fatty dessert bigger than your head?

Sent by cindym | 1:35 PM ET | 05-08-2008

A friend of mine who works for Darden restaurants took me out to eat at a nearby Olive Garden restaurant. I hadn't eaten at Olive Garden in years, but I was pleased with the food and our waitress, who was genuine and funny and incredibly nice. Although I prefer to keep my money local (although Darden is a local company here in Orlando) by eating at local mom n' pops, chains aren't always a bad thing. Often, what really matters is whether or not the food is good, and if the people are friendly.

Sent by doreen | 5:01 PM ET | 05-11-2008

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