The only elegant restaurant in my little city has closed.

It was privately owned, not a franchise, and was casually elegant. Great atmosphere and sense of style. Food was delicious: mostly Italian style dining. Great menu, great service from intelligent waitstaff (a rarity here). But the prices were higher than what most people were used to and they didn't frequent the restaurant enough. They were in business for about three years and took suggestions and made adjustments and even tried a fabulous Sunday Brunch, but it didn't work out. The chef is a graduate of the CIA in New York.

My city is full of franchise restaurants, franchise fast food, and "feedlots". "I am not a cow!" I told my husband once. I couldn't bear to go into some of those places where these smelly slobs were scarfing down bloody red cuts of beast swimming in butter. I could hear their arteries hardening.

The only really nice places left are the private dining halls in the city's two country clubs and I am not joining them. The nice restaurant in the top of the largest tower downtown closed last year. It was elegant and had a martini bar and cigar room. A very old restaurant and successful restaurant also closed last year. I've got Chili's Johnny Carino's, and Red Lobster left and a few private mexican food restaurants that keep getting into trouble with the health inspectors.

We are turning into a fast food nation. And people are too uncertain and too poor to spend money dining, I guess. I am really sick about htis place going out of business. IT was a place I looked forward to going to about once a week.

This town of 36,000 people has one place I'd call a "restaurant" — that is, not a fast-food joint, feed lot or hole in the wall. I wish we did have a couple of franchise restaurants, like Olive Garden or something, but franchises just won't come here, other than fast food — and we don't even have much of that. (This also goes for other types of business. We have to drive 18 miles or more to a Home Depot, a Circuit City or a Mervyn's. Even Wal-Mart won't come here.)

There's a rather upscale place in a tiny town about five miles south of here, but it's a bit pricey and caters mostly to the country-club sect.

On the plus side, there're quite a few little places where you can get a really good breakfast, if breakfast standards please your palate.

Nice atmosphere, by the way.

Since I usually refer to it as a "toilet town."

a SMSA level of 50,000. The city managers usually go out and count a few tombstones if they are anywhere close at the time of census so they can entice new business. We have about 75,000 now, and we've recently gotten a Bed, Bath and Beyond, Ross Dress For Less (doing huge business), PetSmart (wasn't necessary - I am afraid they might drive our regular pet store out of business).

Yeah, the little cafes and diners are usually pretty good, and they make the best breakfast.

This restaurant, though, had a special oven that helped create the best bread you could imagine. It really was an artican type of restaurant/cafe/bakery.

the city council and county board of supes (we're pretty much the whole county) don't seem to want to entice retail business; at least, they don't want a mall or anything. They're all in the good ol' boy network and they want to keep the place the way it was in the '80s, before it started to become Silicon Valley South.

They're all about manufacturing and tech, though, with one business park north of town and another under way. But they don't seem to understand that the employees of those won't want to live here when they find out there's no place to eat or shop and not a damned thing to do except go to the movies.

Many thanks.
You've added a new term to my vocabulary.
:-)

rounded up and go slurp it up and make sounds like a cow chewing it's cud. Sometimes, the decor is like the inside of a barn. Sometimes the restaurant is a barn. The waitress is three sizes too large for her blouse, and her deodorant went on strike about ten minutes after she smeared it on. She usually chews gum, but you can see the outline of a pack of cigs in her greasy apron.

You never know with these covert-ops types.

If I spoke french, I'd be more of a Cordon Bleu gal myself, but attending the CIA in NY or San Franisco would be cool.

and get people together to enjoy fine dining.

I used to cook some great meals for folks when I was younger and didn't have kids. I may have to start again.

Our dining choices are so incredibly poor that we find ourselves praying that someone will open an Olive Garden. That's how desperate we are. It's crap...but at least it's consistent crap.

RIP Rene Joule.... home of the best scones in the North State. :(