Guest blogger: Good food in unexpected places
July 28th, 2008 by Besha Rodell in Food & LifeThe Gourmet-ification of everywhere
By Lindsey Zuckerman
It used to be that you could only find great food at home or in a restaurant. Lately, though, good food is popping up in all sorts of unexpected places.
Whether you’re enjoying BBQ Pork Ribs at Turner Field, sushi at Seattle’s Safeco Field or clam chowder at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, you’ll know this isn’t the baseball grub you remember from childhood. More and more, stadiums are upgrading their food in an attempt to lure casual baseball fans to the game. The idea makes sense — I am far more likely to brave the blazing Atlanta afternoon heat if delicious food is involved.
Turner Field still seems a bit behind the curve on upscale baseball dining. There’s nothing coming out of its concessions to compete with San Francisco’s fresh crab sandwich or Seattle’s Pad Thai. What Turner lacks in quality, though, is made up for in volume, and you can now purchase an all-you-can eat ticket. Whether your waistline can handle a pulled pork sandwich, 50-chicken wing and 3-beer calorie bomb is another issue.
Just as baseball stadiums have moved beyond hot dogs, hospitals aren’t just about Jell-O and mystery meat anymore. In a bid to improve patient and guest satisfaction and to ensure patients get much-needed nutrients, hospitals are offering more refined restaurant-style options and made-to-order dishes, and some, like Columbia Presbyterian in NY are even building sit down restaurants to supplement the dreary cafeteria style dining most hospitals subject you to. At Emory Crawford Long, patients and visitors can purchase Whole Foods Market prepared foods, and the old-fashioned cafeteria was renovated to become a more upscale market-fresh option.
Movie theaters are getting in on the action, too. Atlanta’s recently revamped Buckhead Backlot has become Buckhead Fork and Screen and features menu items such as roasted chicken and mozzarella rigatoni and Thai coconut chicken tenders. Why settle for popcorn and sno-caps when you can have a 3-course meal?
When I was a kid, Epcot was the pinnacle of Disney dining. Dining at the Restaurant Marrakesh in the Moroccan Pavilion was always a special treat at the end of a family vacation. But the rest of the Disney complex was sorely lacking in interesting dining options, with themed quick serve restaurants like Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in Tomorrowland or chain restaurants like Rainforest Café making up the majority of offerings. Not so anymore. Today, there is an abundance of fine dining including the elegant Victoria and Albert’s, creative African cuisine at Jiko, and Todd English’s bluezoo. Mom and Dad are more likely to return to Disney World if they’re being entertained as much as the kids are.
The days of dismal just-an-afterthought food are certainly not over, but today, good food is more widely available than ever. The hungry masses have spoken, and businesses are quickly realizing that delicious food is a table stake for competing in a tough market.
You can read Lindsey Zuckerman’s food blog at www.adventuroustastes.blogspot.com. If you’re interested in being a guest blogger for Omnivore, please email me your ideas at besha.rodell@creativeloafing.com.
Leave a Reply