Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Restaurantation relocation, pt. 2

Yesterday's post linked this article, which describes the author's move to a new neighborhood in search of housing that was better appointed in terms of dining options. Besides serving as a symbol of the foodie movement, the article also begs the question: What are the characteristics of the optimum food neighborhood? From the article, it was pretty clear that "fine" dining was not the issue at hand. Rather, the impetus for the author's relocation was the bounty of cheap, and mostly ethnic food his new neighborhood promised. Certainly, this makes sense--even if you're a member of the Harvard Business School's Food and Wine Club, French Laundry and Daniel are only going to be once-in-a-while destinations. But where the article's author opted pretty far in the direction of ungentrified, how upscale a neighborhood does your average food-centric individual desire? Is it more towards the really good $5 entree (say, burrito), or the really good $20 entree (say, coffee-rubbed pork loin, and you're probably going to order a glass of wine and dessert with it)? And incidentally, no matter how gentrified you like your food, where do the corrollary items--the gourmet cup of coffee and the organic produce--fit into this equation? Unlikely to find these last two without some semblance of the $20 entree in the vicinity.

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