Creative Director
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It's highly concentrated on the I-75 corridor, kind of like how In-N-Out is a west coast thing."There is a restaurant chain called Steak 'n' Shake."
You're an American and you don't know about Steak 'n' Shake?
I'm not sure what your post means - does is mean that that is a reason some people haven't heard of it?
I live in Canada, BTW. So when Americans haven't even heard of all these places (never heard of Harvey's? Really?) in their very own country, I raise an eyebrow. Completely mystifying to me.
Turns out, America is a really big place. There's people who haven't ever seen the ocean, for example, and THAT weirds me out a lot more than the idea that someone might not know about Taco Del Mar or Burgermaster or whatever.
I live in Canada, BTW. So when Americans haven't even heard of all these places (never heard of Harvey's? Really?) in their very own country, I raise an eyebrow. Completely mystifying to me.
To be honest, most of the states in the US are like separate countries when it comes to places to eat, culture, etc; especially when you're talking about east coast vs west coast. Hell, there is a totally different culture between northern and southern california.
Turns out, America is a really big place. There's people who haven't ever seen the ocean, for example, and THAT weirds me out a lot more than the idea that someone might not know about Taco Del Mar or Burgermaster or whatever.
??? And it turns out, Canada is as well. Meh. Like I said, I'm not even from your country, and I've heard of all these places. Also like I said, completely mystifying to me. "Really big place" isn't particularly convincing to a Canadian! :D
(It's probably not really necessary to try to explain - I probably won't get it, since I (and all my peers) have heard of these places already, and we're not even part of your "really big (country)". I'll just leave it as a mystifying part of the universe! ;) )
I live in Canada, BTW. So when Americans haven't even heard of all these places (never heard of Harvey's? Really?) in their very own country, I raise an eyebrow. Completely mystifying to me.
Not so mystifying if you consider that there's absolutely no reason why we necessarily SHOULD know about a regional chain that doesn't advertise in a location 1000miles away.
I would bet that a lot of people out here in the west weren't familiar with White Castle until the Harold and Kumar movie.
Heck, I didn't know about In-and-Out until I had traveled to California, and I'm in Oregon. I'm quite sure most people outside of Oregon/Washington aren't familiar with Burgerville or Shari's.
We weren't familiar with Hardee's until they moved out here, and even then, they call it Carl's Jr, so a lot of people still aren't familiar with it.
Would most east-coasters know about Jack in the Box if it wasn't for the E. Coli issues they had back in the '90's? That's how I first heard about them, and visited my first one in Anaheim or Brea back in '96 - they didn't arrive in Oregon (at least, in any appreciable number) until about 4-5 years later.
The United States is a pretty big place, and while roughly the same geographic size as Canada, it's got about 9 times the population of Canada, so there's going to be a LOT more regional businesses/chains.
Another fun example: I'd bet that a lot of locals around here (Albany, OR) wouldn't know what a Shakey's Pizza is (unless they've watched a particular South Park episode), despite the fact that their 2nd and 3rd locations ever were in Portland and Albany.
They're gone from this area (but you lucky Paizo folks apparently have one in Renton), replaced by Izzy's Pizza (a locally-based chain).
Shakey's history trivia tidbit: The Albany Shakey's was the 3rd restaurant they opened, but the 1st they built from the ground-up. The building is the home of a pretty awesome used bookstore with one of the better collections of used RPG stuff in the area.
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To me the big plus for Steak 'n Shake other than the shakes that is. Is there burgers are nearly as good as most every day restaurants but not much more expensive than fast food. It kinda falls inbetween restaurant and fast food.Steak 'n Shake? Never heard of 'em, but then again I live on planet Utah.
I've been to 5 guys and In and Out burger. 5 guys is better for me because I can get grilled onion and green pepper on my burger.
Yummm!-Flea
Inexpensive but mostly-tasty burgers is a big plus with them. And the shakes are good.
I've never heard of Five Guys.
Having both an In-N-Out, Sonic and a 5 guys within 5 min's of where I live, here is my breakdown.
In-N-Out: Great plain burger/cheeseburger. If you like just a traditional burger with none of this fru-fru stuff short of secret sauce, lettuce, onion, tomato you can't beat it. Plus they always serve Drive-Thru first, and I have /never/ had them mess up an order. The people who work there are friendly (because they get paid WAY more than minimum wage). Plus the business isn't franchised and privately owned, which makes a difference. Their fries are pretty hit-and miss and are an acquired taste (they cut the potatoes right there in front of you), so you know they aren't frozen or from a bag. They have a 'secret' menu for those paleo/gluten-free peeps like my wife can get a burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun.
Sonic: Tater-Tots. End of story. Wait, did I mention they serve a burger with TATER-FRIGGIN-TOTS?
5-Guys: Short of there being a line every-time-i-go and no drive-thru, you can get everything short of a d20 on your burger for little to no additional cost. If you like a good burger with mushrooms, A-1 steak sauce, a dead kitty, etc on it then go here. They have like 50 hochillion toppings on a big list you can get. When you do get your food, its usually so hot you need to repave your mouth after you eat it. Nothing really stood out about their fries other than I was finished with my burger before I could even attempt to eat them. They do serve salted peanuts (at least the one here) in a big bin so you have something to munch on while you wait.
I'm a fan of Big Kahuna Burger.
That is a tasty burger.
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I've never heard of Five Guys.
We have one not far from me and it's usually packed. I went there once and was not impressed. Burger, Fries and a Drink - $12. Sit down dinner prices with McDonald's ambience and service. I'm predicting a shakeout in the gourmet burger market, how many $10 burger joints can the market support.
I've only been as far north as Detroit, but I seem to think they petered out in Ohio. Maybe it's an Ohio River watershed thing, as they thin out heading south on I-75 as well. A few in Florida, but not many.We don't have any Steak 'n' Shakes where I live (the Flint, Mi area) and we're right by I-75. AT least no Steak 'n' Shakes I am aware of.It's highly concentrated on the I-75 corridor, kind of like how In-N-Out is a west coast thing."There is a restaurant chain called Steak 'n' Shake."
You're an American and you don't know about Steak 'n' Shake?
From Tennessee, and we have quite few of them here. Mississippi has them, Arkansas, many Southern states have them.
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I've never heard of Five Guys.We have one not far from me and it's usually packed. I went there once and was not impressed. Burger, Fries and a Drink - $12. Sit down dinner prices with McDonald's ambience and service. I'm predicting a shakeout in the gourmet burger market, how many $10 burger joints can the market support.To be fair, you get 2-3x as much food from a single 5 guys burger and order of fries than you do from a McDonald's burger and order of fries, and it tastes better.
It is expensive, though.
At that price it had better taste better. :/
$12 pretty much insures I won't be taking the family (wife and 4 kids) there any time soon if they move into this area. $72 can buy a pretty nice, non-hamburger, meal elsewhere.
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It's highly concentrated on the I-75 corridor, kind of like how In-N-Out is a west coast thing."There is a restaurant chain called Steak 'n' Shake."
You're an American and you don't know about Steak 'n' Shake?
I'm not sure what your post means - does is mean that that is a reason some people haven't heard of it?
I live in Canada, BTW. So when Americans haven't even heard of all these places (never heard of Harvey's? Really?) in their very own country, I raise an eyebrow. Completely mystifying to me.
I think some of it is the regional nature of US culture, and some of it is population.
I've read, from a couple of different sources, that in China, the locals are very picky about preferring to eat their home regional cuisines. If you're in Beijing but from Hunan, it has to be Hunanese for dinner, for instance.
There's also some fair regional differences to Mexican cuisine, if Rick Bayless is to be believed.
Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.
Oh, and we recently discovered a new-to-us line called Backyard Burgers.
Delicious 1/3 lb burgers & combos and, for me the deciding vote, perfect baked potatoes.
Also good but a bit costly B D's Mongolian Barbecue.
Now if either one of them would just open a branch here in Pittsburgh...
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I've never heard of Five Guys.We have one not far from me and it's usually packed. I went there once and was not impressed. Burger, Fries and a Drink - $12. Sit down dinner prices with McDonald's ambience and service. I'm predicting a shakeout in the gourmet burger market, how many $10 burger joints can the market support.To be fair, you get 2-3x as much food from a single 5 guys burger and order of fries than you do from a McDonald's burger and order of fries, and it tastes better.
It is expensive, though.
At that price it had better taste better. :/
$12 pretty much insures I won't be taking the family (wife and 4 kids) there any time soon if they move into this area. $72 can buy a pretty nice, non-hamburger, meal elsewhere.
I see people say that pretty often and that is a typical price up here in Alaska.
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Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.
There's plenty of regional variation here, too. Perhaps not as much as in the United States due to disparities in population size, but there is still a fair bit of it. It breaks down to six regions: B.C./Prairies/Ontario/Quebec/Maritimes/Nfld. A lot of crossover and uniformity between those six, and a lot that isn't, too.
Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.There's plenty of regional variation here, too. Perhaps not as much as in the United States due to disparities in population size, but there is still a fair bit of it. It breaks down to six regions: B.C./Prairies/Ontario/Quebec/Maritimes/Nfld. A lot of crossover and uniformity between those six, and a lot that isn't, too.
We get more regional variation than that when talking about SEC football.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I'll stick to our Max & Erma's here in the midwest for good burgers.
Especially the garbage burger Though I've not gone since I lost Donna, it was her favourite place.
Edit: That little Cartoon Max? I knew the guy who created him, even got him involved in RPGs.
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Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.
Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.
When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.
Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.
We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.
Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.
When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.
Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.
We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.
Correct. And it also doesn't explain why Canadians know about both Canadian and US food culture, but the US doesn't know about their own. (Just weird things about our world that I don't even think is explainable...!)
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Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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I'll stick to our Max & Erma's here in the midwest for good burgers.
Especially the garbage burger Though I've not gone since I lost Donna, it was her favourite place.
Edit: That little Cartoon Max? I knew the guy who created him, even got him involved in RPGs.
The Cajun Burger is my favorite Max & Erma's burger. Love it!
FYI, my first date with my wife was at Max & Erma's. She'd never been, and she loved it!
Canada has about 10% of the US population. Maybe the reason Canadian food culture is so uniform is because there's not enough people to support it? Perhaps the Australians on the board can comment on differences across regions over there.Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.
When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.
Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.
We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.
Is this level of variety outside Canada unheard of to Canadians?
This seems like pretty much the norm for any of the larger cities here in Oregon (and even some of the smaller ones).
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Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.
When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.
Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.
We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.
Is this level of variety outside Canada unheard of to Canadians?
This seems like pretty much the norm for any of the larger cities here in Oregon (and even some of the smaller ones).
It sounds like downtown Nashville, and frankly, Nashville is a small town in the US.
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Is this level of variety outside Canada unheard of to Canadians?
This seems like pretty much the norm for any of the larger cities here in Oregon (and even some of the smaller ones).
No, but the last time I heard, German Nationals weren't travelling from Germany to Oregon as tourists (like they do to Victoria BC) to enjoy German cuisine (like they do in Victoria) - as an example.
I'm not trying to be asinine, I just happen to know alot of people in the culinary industry who praise Canada's access to traditional ethnic cuisine from around the world.
We have a high density of multi-culturalism without the inherint intergration requirements of many countries - it's kinda a lit bit of what we're known for - so it follows that culinary and dining habits follow.
Didn't mean to jump into a snake pit on this one. Yeesh.
I'm not trying to be asinine
I thought nothing of the sort. I was merely curious as I didn't consider Oregon anything special in the variety department, and you documented nearly the exact variety of a number of locales near me.
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I'm not trying to be asinineI thought nothing of the sort. I was merely curious as I didn't consider Oregon anything special in the variety department, and you documented nearly the exact variety of a number of locales near me.
I figured using some generalized examples was easier than, "I know of entire towns that shut down to celebrate indulging in 18 different kinds of Bannock"
:)
Either way, both Countries are pretty damn big and while someone can point at Napa Valley for wine, I can point to the Okanagan Valley for the same, so ultimately it's all really about just eating where and what you like :)
And all of this food discussion is why it's always a plus to date someone with professional experience in high-end cooking.
It sounds like downtown Nashville, and frankly, Nashville is a small town in the US.Uniform in the fast food sense... but Canada is also one of the most multi-cultural populations on the planet.
When I stand on the corner of my office building I look at 2 vietnamese restaurants, a korean, a thai, indian, an english pub and an irish pub.
Up the street is an Italian deli, chinese and 2 japanese, etc.
We may not have a lot of variety in fast food, but Canada (Particularly in the major city centers) has long been known in the culinary culture to have an astounding level of variety.
Is this level of variety outside Canada unheard of to Canadians?
This seems like pretty much the norm for any of the larger cities here in Oregon (and even some of the smaller ones).
Add about 40 pizza-places, and a bunch of kebab/hot dog kiosks and it sounds like Trollhättan in Sweden, which has a population roughly less than 50'000 - may have to replace the Vietnamese restaurants with another English pub and an Italian restaurant, though.
Does all this discussion of food and restaurants mean that Paizo should start serving food in it's hall next year? And if so what should they serve?
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Does all this discussion of food and restaurants mean that Paizo should start serving food in it's hall next year? And if so what should they serve?
If I was going to have someone cater in the Indy area it would be Goose the Market hands down. http://www.goosethemarket.com/
A massive selection of smoked and cured meats, some they do in their own smokehouse. Hell, they have a bacon of the month club. Artisan cheeses. A fine selection of beer and wine. You can't go wrong at the Goose.
