Why eat at chain restaurants on vacation??
 

Just a curiosity question, and not sure if this has been posted before.....
Any time I go on vacation I prefer to eat at a local restaurant or an out of the way place to sample the food there. Especially for those that live in a big city, (I live in New York) why go to a chain restaurant, when chances are you can do the same at home? My take on a vacation is to get away to do the things you can't do in your daily routine (ie rock climbing, snorkeling, etc.)so I usually apply this to food as well. Unless you have kids screaming for McDonalds, I can't see any other reason for doing this....am I the only one who thinks like this?

This depends on a lot and chain-food eating can have it's place on an extended vacation. Have you extended your day too long and find yourself starving? Have you been looking for that perfect restaurant and you are in an out-of-the-way location and have come across nothing BUT chains? Do you just want to grab and quick bite and hit the road? Chain restaurants (and I don't just mean McDonald's), but Au Bon Pain or Panera, for example, can offer something in the way of consistent, maybe even quality fare. Let's say, for breakfast--how about a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel w/Hazelnut cream cheese at Panera or a triple-berry muffin at Au Bon Pain or a smoked turkey on Rosemary Foccocia for a quick lunch also at ABP. For a good sit down meal, I like to try to the local restaurants, too, but there are times when the chains also have their place.

Chain restaurants are good if you travel with some one who is, for lack of a better term, picky or finicky eater. When I travel with my mother, we often seek out chains because she knows ahead of time that she will like it and be able to eat something. She will attempt to try new things, but sometimes she just can't find anything on a menu (in a new place) that appeals to her or that she can eat. She's a good sport about it, and will usually have just a simple salad. However, part of the concession made is to go to a chain restaurant so she can really eat.

I'll eat at a chain restaurant that is exclusive to the area I am in. For instance, at one time The Cheesecake Factory was at one time only in the west. Same goes for a chain named Coco's. Otherwise, I prefer to explore the various neighborhood restaurants and eat there.

In Hawaii we don't have most of the chains so they can be a treat.

I should also add that my daughter will only eat chicken strips. Those can be hard to find in local ethnic type places.

I was happy to eat at **== McDonalds **== in Mexico, as it had the normal english menu, and I do not habla espanol, and was concerned about getting Montezuma's revenge. Also ate at a **== McDonalds **== in Rome, it was also neat to see the large numbers of lira (and pesos) required for the meals. :S-

I'm with you, missjanna. Since you just came back from South Beach, I'm sure you noticed the TGI Friday's at the corner of 5th and Ocean Drive. When I'd walk by on the way to the great record store around the corner (Spec's), I'd see tourists just a-chowin' down and I'd think: All the great restaurants in the area and you eat HERE?!? A place you probably frequent back home?! Don't you want to try the places the locals eat? Like Puerto Sagua (Cuban home cookin'!!) or La Sandwichérie or even A Fish Called Avalon? Expand your horizons, Cletus and Bowdine!!

Having said that, what happens when the local restaurants lack variety and get old? I love mom-and-pop Italian restaurants, but when I'm in certain neighborhoods in Pittsburgh (for example), that's your only choice in local eateries, and "noodles and red sauce" gets boring after a while for me. If you can't get away to more varied cuisine (and I may slam Pittsburgh for other reasons, but their restaurant scene is actually quite good), but you have a better-quality chain restaurant, I'd go there just to escape. A PF Chang, for example. Or a Houston's. Sometimes it's good to have a known winner in your back pocket when you just need food.

By the same token why eat at them at all? I resort to chains when I travel on business because I may have few options in proximity to the hotel and am too tired to figure out what might be a great local place. I don't like to eat at them while at home as I find them boring. While on vacation I avoid them if at all possible. We don't eat out that often so we like to have something from a good local place that a chain couldn't offer - like really good fried clams or lobsters etc.

I spent an entire summer with my husband and preteen daughter hitting every fast food place from coast to coast. They were too afraid to try the local cuisine. In fact when we were in New Orleans, I was the only one to demand gumbo!

We do it to keep costs down. I'd much rather eat at a nice place, but with 4 of us, it really gets expensive. We do try to eat the "healthy" choices at certain chains.

Hey RJ! great post but i must add that trying NEW fast food can be great fun! For example, thanks to YOU RJ, we tried Baja Fresh and In N Out on our recent west / CA road-trip. YUM YUM, wish we had both around here, especially Baja Fresh!

Also tried Culvers in St. Louis after reading about it here - again, new to us and deliciously different!

Ok even though I initiated this I will admit to trying new chains, especially if they are not in my area. Like I wish we had Fat Tuesdays here. But we do have now an Outback Steakhouse, Boulder Creek, Hooters, Olive Garden and a few others that opened recently. And when I was in Cancun for a week, there was one day I had Burger King for lunch simply because I was craving a burger & wanted it fast....

I'll get "chain" fast food when we don't have time to stop for a real meal, but I would never go to one of these sit-down nationwide chains unless I had no other choice. The food just tends to be over-processed, mediocre, and expensive. And there are typically long lines of people waiting to get in! No, thanks.

Of course there are some local (i.e., not nationwide) chains that have really good food. Because their food isn't made in one place, frozen, and shipped around the nation, it's better quality. Baluchi's in NYC (Indian food), for example, is quite good.

The ?chain snobs? on this board always make me laugh! Little do they realize that there is a reason why these restaurants became so successful ? enough people liked their food to make them successful.

I know that when I go to Europe, I?ll occasionally go to a Mc Donalds for a drink, because the Europeans don?t like ice in their drinks, and on a hot day, this can get pretty annoying. Additionally, there?s a wide range of chains, from White Castle and Taco Bell on the extreme low end of the scale, to Morton?s and P.F. Chang?s at the other end of the spectrum. Lumping them all together in one batch simply doesn?t reflect reality. As some have mentioned, the convenience, price, and general dependability of the food is why many choose a chain. I like a certain amount of variety in my dining options ? sometimes I like a chain; sometimes I want to go to a local joint.

Hey rjw! Didn?t know that you had recommended Baja Fresh to someone. Did you know it?s an Ohio company . . . . ??? :)

I'm with Island Mom. We don't have chains except for McDonalds, KFC and Subway, so we give them a try when in the states. We had a pretty good lunch at Olive Garden last year, and my other half always insists we stop at White Castle on the drive from Newark airport to central New Jersey. The appeal there escapes me, but it's his vacation too.

I am ususally anti-chain restaurants, especially on vacation.

However, in some cases, they take on a lot of the local charm. Off the top of my head, McCormick & Schmick have great locations in Chicago (overlooking the river) and Baltimore, in a great hotel overlooking the water. Also, China Grill in NY and Vegas are great.

Best meal I had in 10 days in Portugal was at a Burger King. And I hate Burger King.

I prefer to eat in local restaurants anywhere I go, here or abroad. However, my usual travel companion is Irish and a very very picky eater, so oftentimes he is only satisfied in chains he knows well and won't venture otherwise.

I eat at chain restaurants during business travel for the consistency. I know that if I'm at Fridays having a burger that it will be the same as at home. Unless I'm on vacation, I try not to eat at mom and pop places because I can't afford to get this shits when I'm out on business.

Jack:

Didn't you try the Portuguese steak or Altentejo pork?

We also tried Ruby's Diner in CA for the first time! We'd seen it on previous trips to California but only tried it after reading about it, here. Great burgers (the best in ca, right?) and an amazing veg-wich!

Ruby's Auto-Diner in Laguna Beach has roof-top dining, complete with a view of the Pacific. (Limited view, but view none the less)

ellen: Those are great fast-food joints-- glad you liked them! They are regional-- not nation-wide or international, like TGI Friday's or Mickey D's, so it's a bit different. I'm glad to have tried Miami Subs last year in South Beach, as well as St. Hubert up in Montréal; the food wasn't that good in either (poutine is a rather nasty Québecois delicacy, but it's just awful at St. Hubert), but I got a taste of regional convenience food.

But even on business, I'll try to get some local flavor. Recently I got the hungries at my firm's New York office. Yes, there was an Au Bon Pain downstairs off the lobby, but I walked across the street to get a BLT at a locally-owned and operated deli. Keep the money in town, that's my motto....

LT: On the subject of Baja Fresh, you're kinda right, but.... The chain actually started in 1990 here in southern California. It is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ohio's own Wendy's International, but its own headquarters are here in Thousand Oaks.

As far as the virtues of chains, I'm not so sure that it's always quality as much as consistency, familiarity and (nowadays) quantity. I blame McDonald's for attempting (and overall succeeding in) a dumbing-down of Americans' palates, and a lot of chains like Denny's and Olive Garden are lowering the bar for sit-down restaurants. Snobbery? Maybe.

But why not sample local cuisine when traveling? Why not support the local economy when you can (that is, net profits going to local people instead of shareholders)? Why not make your travel a complete experience?

Poor froggy-- having to travel the whole country eating in national chains. It may be cheap, it may be familiar-- but at the end of the day, it's mediocre and no reflection of the place you're visiting.

When on trips, we usually mix it up a bit with local restaurants and chains. It's great to try food that we don't normally find or that we can't find cooked well in our town. The chains we pick, however, are usually ones that we do not have in our area (Au Bon Pain, Bahama Breeze, Pizzeria Uno, even the Cheesecake Factory). If, however, we've gotten a little tired of the local scene and are craving something simple like a good burger, we have no problem going to a tried and true place.

One place I try to NEVER go to is Chili's--it's not b/c I can't stand them but b/c I've got 2 sisters-in-law who ALWAYS pick Chili's when the family is together. It doesn't matter that there are plenty of other good and local restaurants in the area--they must have Chili's. It drives me crazy. I told my husband that the next time they visit our area, we're telling them our Chili's burned down!

This is also a reason why we try to be careful when traveling with friends. On a trip to Key west a while ago,the other couple wanted to eat dinner at fridays and burger king. And have breakfast at Shoneys. The "riskiest" they would do was Margueritaville.

rjw, in your crusade against chains while travelling, you seemed to have missed the point more than a few of us have made. Not all of us have cast iron stomachs and are willing to take chances on local cuisine. I can and do. My mother simply cannot. She does make a good effort most times. However, there is absolutely nothing worse than being very hungry, ordering something just to "give it a try", and knowing if you eat it you will be sick throughout the day and into the evening. Then you're stuck sending it back to the kitchen and ordering a simple salad while the waiter, the cook, the manager, and practically everyone else makes a big scene as to why you couldn't possible like that particle dish.

Sometimes it helps to show a little compassion towards others. There are chain restaurants for those who wish to patronize them. There are local establishments for those that don't. Thankfully, there is room for everyone. And that should be minus the snobbery.

My answer to this question is why eat a chain ever if eating there while on vacation is not desirable? You can eat anywhere when you are at home so why frequent the same ole? If chain restaurants are good enough for you when you are at home when you are presumably better informed about your choices, then aren't they just as good when on vacation? Not all chain restaurants are created equally. McDonalds can not be in the same category as PF Changs. Ok, that's a wrap! ;)

chele60, I do feel for your mother. Food sensitivity is always a consideration. But I am pretty sure that even while traveling, you can find fairly neutral food choices everywhere without relying on those Temples of Culinary Mediocrity like Denny's or TGI Friday's (I hate to dump on them).

And it's not like I'm so damn pure about my food choices. Sometimes, when you're out shopping for lumber or seeing a movie, you just want a stiff drink and some TGI Friday's grub. There's no REAL shame in relying on what's available over what you REALLY would like. I would love to eat New Zealand lamb chops as prepared at Christy's near my house in Long Beach, but I would quickly go broke, so I sigh, wipe away a tear and have fish tacos at Rubio's Baja Grill. Downmarket but good.

Besides, McDonald's food tears my stomach up much more often than even the fieriest Kang Ka-ree (Chicken Yellow Curry) at the Thai place around the corner....

Well, as someone with a 4 year old and 18 month old, sometimes the chain restaurants are the only ones with 1) food that they will eat and 2) that we feel most comfortable taking them to. I love to eat at local restaurants when away, but sometimes that just isn't possible with children.

rjw while I agree with you on a lot of things, this isn't one of them.

You mentioned eating locally to support the local economy. Pick a Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood ANYWHERE in the country. Ask the manager how much money out of Hard Rock's own pocket they pour into local charities. Local charities. Did you know Hard Rock started the charity of taking food from restaurants to soup kitchens and shelters?

How about employees of chains? I'm sure the employees of the TGI Fridays in South Beach don't live in Cleveland. Their tip money goes straight back into the local economy as does the other employees.

How about all of the utilities they use? How about all the money they spend with local vendors?

Most chain restaurants now are not soley owned by big corporations. They are co-owned with a local manager and the corporation. Not all are franchises. Even franchises these days are locally owned.

All I'm saying is before you bash the big boys for reasons other than food, stop and think about the damage you may be doing to a restaurant who might employ hundreds of people.

By the way, the successful chains have raised the standard for casual dining.

If a local restaurant is good, it is likely to become a chain; Roys, Olives, Carabbas, Lutece, Nathan's Hotdogs, Emeril's, etc.

ilisa: Understood. I don't have kids, so I tend to forget that. I pray that, if I ever DO have kids, I get "good eaters"....!

Go, I don't doubt that the chains can be Good Citizens in the cities they inhabit. I don't doubt that their employees constitute part of their local economy. All I'm saying is: Don't you think, instead of getting a burger at the Hard Rock that will only be fair, you can maybe hit one of the innumerable great locally-operated restaurants you'll find around it in your major cities? Think of the poor owners...!

When in San Francisco, would you go to Red Lobster?

Maybe I should be less snobby and just say it this way: Given a choice in a given city between a nationwide chain and a local establishment offering similar grub, I will always choose the local place. Rip up my innards or not, at least I *tried* something "local"!

There ya go! I understand exactly what you mean.

For the record, I eat locally and in chains. After all, it is impossible not to go into Starbucks in NYC.

Go: Oh yeah, gotta have my Starbucks in the AM when I'm in NYC. The one near my firm's NY office gets local bagels, so I have one of those and feel I'm doing my "taste of NYC" thing with my Venti Blackeye....

The LA-area Starbucks get breakfast stuff from the fab Brea Bakery, so there you have it-- local pastries, Seattle java. I can live with the dichotomy....

chains know how to meet your expitations, they know what you expect for food quality. You have a good idea of the high sanitation standurds they have. quality control measures if its not right they will fix it with out a fight .You have a basic idea how much you have to spend per person. Did you ever go to a local restaurant and take a look at the price of the menu and want to run the hell out but you were to scared too ! especially traveling with a family that one place could set you back a few meals you budgeted for! don't you compare prices of chain joints to see if it is what you expect to pay . you know the old line you may have to stay and do the dishes to pay for your meal . some places are great at telling you the specials but never the price and you get sticker shock when the check comes

Ahh, but that's why you hope that somewhere outside they've posted the menu so you get a preview! In some towns, that's the law. In others, it's a classy touch. When in doubt, you ask someone local.

In a lot of local places the major cost of doing business is labor. When they cut back on labor they cut back on sanitation. If you have seen as many kitchen that I have ther were are very few chains that got sitations or close for Health reasons. Chains have the resources to spend on training and inplmenent sersafe policys.employees are screened for TB .and other health hazards they have to have a food handlers card . Some locals hire people from 3rd world countries that have bad sanitary habits .and people that are not medicaly cleared to handle food. The front of the house may look clean but the kitchen is a disaster.

And that's why we have the current health inspector's ratings posted by law in the window in our restaurants here! I eat in the local eateries, but I make sure it doesn't look like a total dump...! I'm an optimist, but do I sound like a FOOL, italiano?!?

Why? To help the stock market recover of course!