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!