Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Restaurants Anyone relate?
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM
This question was posed to the Concierge blog on the New York Times site:
I consider myself a fairly responsible type: I won’t be installing my air-conditioner this year, I recycle, I call my mom on Sundays. Still, I’m finding all the recent focus on locavores and sustainability and all that a bit much. These days, when I walk by the Park Slope Food Co-op, I want to buy the gas-guzzlingest S.U.V. on the planet and drive to a McDonald’s I could have walked to. I guess this is a long way of asking: where I can get a cheeseburger or some pasta that tastes good and won’t kill me or the planet but that’s served without a side of virtuousness?
The Concierge provides the reader with a list of suggestions in New York. Can anyone answer the same question about Atlanta?
Comments (4)
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YES! I completely relate and I love that person's post! I am very happy that foodi-ness has become so widely popular, and I'm certainly happy that we are celebrating and advocating purity in growing, preparing and eating food. But - I am so OVER people who probably don't even know how to bake a damn potato being so self-righteous about this food movement du jour. I get it, I appreciate it. My grandparents did it (unwittingly) all their lives. But let's dial it down a few dozen notches, ok hipsters? As for cheeseburger suggestions, a place like Flip is perfect. Richard Blais - by way of food and attitude - offers up responsible and delicious food with no eco-pretense.
I totally get it too. There's a better way to do "good for you" food that doesn't destroy the planet- try MetroFresh. Their food is always, always fantastic, they just switched to green containers, they have a menu that's in-synch with the seasons, they source their pastry locally and the vibe there is about passionate love of food and how healthy can be spectacular. I know I'm gushing, but that's how I feel about great food and that's how I feel about MetroFresh. It's in Midtown next to the Trader Joes at Piedmont & 10th.
That's funny about the Park Slope food co-op. I go there with my friend when I visit her in Brooklyn and this last time I was surprised they didn't make me get down on the floor and do push-ups after standing in three different lines just to get permission to come in with her. I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, you can buy okra in January there. There is produce from the New York area but the business does not necessarily promote sustainability or carry any prodcuts that you couldn't find anyplace else. One of my problems with the whole movement is being overcharged for the concept. It filters down through the levels from producers/manufacturers to consumers who pay for the addition of tacked-on labels like 'sustainable' and 'organic' and many times it turns out to be a farce. Like someone else said, to our parents this was simply the way people did things once; both absurd and captivating how out of control things get in our society.
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