What do you DISlike about restaurants in your home town? ..

@ffony probably why none of them stay open more than a few years, and/or have pissed off the locals to the point that they rely completely on tourists during the summer months...

@wildbill83 Have you considered opening a restaurant yourself, that would be different from the ones you describe? If you did, or you even just vaguely thought about it, what practical steps would you start with, to make sure it fulfils your vision?

@ffony I'm a contractor/engineer, why would I open a restaurant?

Imagine If I treated my work/customers the way gen z burger flippers treat theirs?

I'd get sued and/or be in prison...

@JimboSaturn It’s sad seeing so many mom-n-pops go under.

@OlderSometimesWiser I agree, it make our culture so flat and homogenous. Doesn't matter where you are, it's all the same place.

@JimboSaturn But you've exported Poutine to the rest of the world - and what's more fulfilling than posh cheesy chips when you've had a skinful of ale! 🤣😂🤗

@beermeplease yeah I think they are more common here than Mexican restaurants. I would love to see more Indian, Mediterranean, Persian and Greek restaurants in this area.

@exexec Hearing issues - yes. I can no longer bear the sound levels at concerts, movies etc; but who has the real hearing issues - is it me or the people who need that much volume?

@ffony My hearing was ruined when I worked in a sawmill and textile mill as a teen and young man with little or no hearing protection. If there is a lot of background noise, I cannot hear normal conversation at a table.

@exexec I wouldn't say my hearing is 'ruined'; but I recognize the difficulty you have, separating conversation from back ground noise. It can even be tough to isolate the voice of the person I'm talking to from others just chatting.

@thisguy20 Pizza Hut had a very nice ambiance in their older restaurants, 70’s-90’s style. Wood tables, red gingham curtains, candles on tables, subdued lighting. It was an affordable casual place for date nights back then for the young blue-collar crowd. Then about 15 years ago they decided it needed an update, they built a new restaurant a half-mile up the road, put two large dining rooms, each with 5 big-screen TV’s and brighter lighting, no curtains or any type of character. The only thing that even resembles the older restaurants is the aroma of the pizzas as you enter the restaurant. Several time I’ve went inside to pick up a carry-out order and there might be one or two tables occupied as large as it is…and this is on a Friday evening when they used to be very busy with most all of the tables filled. This is the type of thing I miss in restaurants today. Also liked the old-fashioned diners, they had their own type of ambience as well, clean & bright too.

@SunshineGirl Exactly! My own cooking is better than these chain restaurants.

@SW-User I’m much older than you and what we had growing up was very bland compared to today’s offerings.Mostly like farm foods, or Heartland style foods. Italian food like spaghetti was about as ethnic of food as we had back then. I never tasted pizza or Mexican food till I was in my mid-teens. And didn’t taste Indian, Chinese, Mediterranean, Greek, or Middle-Eastern foods till I was 30 years or older. Opened up a whole new world of cuisines and flavors for me.

@hunkalove I spent many years working in my own darkroom. Now I don't 😄.

Is there a reason you don't eat in restaurants?

@Lilliesandlight Yes! Yes! Thank you!

@PhoenixPhail What size is your town/community? I may do a rough count of the not-fast-food places here (abt 20,000) just for fun.

@ffony It's just under 700,000.

@CrazyMusicLover Agreed about the portion sizes; but we generally order things that are good for take-home 'leftovers.' We often freeze those for later meals at home.

@HumanEarth Ours still take cash - so long as the ink's dry.

@SW-User Or snobby pompous cats.
"I'm a cat and you are not and I don't even see you there" (Garrison Keillor)

@JimboSaturn Turn it down? Turn it off!

@ffony Exactly!

@Musicman Lol….. but with seniors eating the early bird specials at 4pm, they should be ready for breakfast by 8pm. Wake up next day, eat lunch and start all over again.

@OlderSometimesWiser 👍😂😂😂 That's about the size of it. Lol!!! About a quarter of the restaurants here specialize in breakfast and lunch. They close at 2 pm daily and you can get breakfast until closing. We never had anything like that in Virginia.