> The silverware was mismatched, the food was literally microwaved tater tots. It was quite the experience.
This made me laugh. This is an extremely common situation, from dead zone rural all the way up to ordinary suburban and midsize city. And it's not hard to find in hopping metropolis San Francisco either.
Unrelated, but there used to be an ironic-downmarket diner in South of Market. It didn't last long, but (for a while) people packed the place to eat trays of frozen macaroni and cheese.
You could get a slightly better version of the same dish (but still distinctly microwaved) in a dozen places elsewhere around town, but people went to this place for the hipper decor and music, and to know that they were eating (and enjoying) the same food ironically, expensively, a few blocks from work, and just down the street from a wine bar where they have such creative ideas of how to infuse a vodka tonic!
This made me laugh. This is an extremely common situation, from dead zone rural all the way up to ordinary suburban and midsize city. And it's not hard to find in hopping metropolis San Francisco either.
Unrelated, but there used to be an ironic-downmarket diner in South of Market. It didn't last long, but (for a while) people packed the place to eat trays of frozen macaroni and cheese.
You could get a slightly better version of the same dish (but still distinctly microwaved) in a dozen places elsewhere around town, but people went to this place for the hipper decor and music, and to know that they were eating (and enjoying) the same food ironically, expensively, a few blocks from work, and just down the street from a wine bar where they have such creative ideas of how to infuse a vodka tonic!