Favorite Eatery Executive Ownership Style?

I personally lean toward the corporately owned eateries. They seem to have higher standards.

However, the only franchise establishments I can think of are all fast-food, and there are very few independently owned/operated restaurants in my area.

I really dislike most franchises, actually. Especially Subway (although I love the food there). It bothers me when coupons I get at one store aren't valid at another.

Wall Street Deli for me. Incredible subs this place has, incredible subs. I am always happy to pay the 3 dollars extra per sandwich for their food. Coporate owned and right in the heart of downtown DC. My only gripe is I have to park about 4 blocks away to get to this thing.........

Independent all the way. While I don't mind corporate chains, in the end they aren't very interesting. Right around the corner from my office in Boca Raton is a little Greek restaurant called Byblos. It consists entirely of a tiny kitchen with barstools and a 1-foot-deep table along the wall. But the food is better than some of the most expensive "Mediterranean" food I have eaten.

A full meal there costs about $6. It's the kind of place where, after you eat there a few times, the owner knows what your favorites are. He's a nice guy, and has a great collection of middle eastern music. You may wonder how he survives on $6 meals, but he moves some decent volume out of that tiny place, with take-out, and baked goodies like baklava and flatbread.

No corporation in the world can compete with this, and that's the beauty of it .

<homer voice>mmmmmmmmmm, baklava</homer voice>

Chili Dogs (Hotchi Dogs) at the Hamilton in Carlisle PA. Eat one and you will smell like it all day, leave it in your car and smell it for a week.

Oh they are sooooooo good, why in the world did I move to California????

<stomach growl>I need my chili dog fix</stomach growl>

Jock's BBQ (send me a slab Jock, may you rest in peace)
Smokestack BBQ (best Pit Beans anywhere)
Gates BBQ

Man, I need to move back to KC...

Independent restaurants are the best.

The corporate chains are so boring and the menus don't seem to differ much between them.

Pakistani food puts all others to shame!

Best food in the history of the world!!!!!!!!!!

Independant man, no other choice. Hitting Outback or Ruby Tuesday's every now and then is good (Tuesday's has the BEST burger of any corporate - Smokehouse burger... mmmm), but it gets old really fast. You hit the local spots though, they can always provide something new for you. I just don't think you can beat the good old fashioned Italian-owned pizza shop. There's a place not 5 miles from here that makes THE BEST meatball and cheese sub you could ever eat. Wings and breaded mushrooms suck something ferocious... but man.. those meatball and cheese subs are absolutely perfect!

thedude -
It's really that good? I live in Mechanicsburg so all I have to do is shoot straight down Rt. 641 to get to Carlisle [you happen to remember about where in Carlisle it is/was? I'll go check it out ].

CTB,
The Hamilton is on High St (right side), at the corner of High and Pitt. It's the next street south after you get to the main intersection of High and Hanover. And yes, it really is that good. Be sure to get French fries with chili sauce on them, as well as hotdogs with chili and onions.

I believe High street is the street you will come in on from Mechanicsburg.

The one corporate chain that is good is Claim Jumper. I don't think they have them back east. Food is awesome, and they give you a ton! Similar to Outback, but a lot better.

OK, well... as long as we are naming locations, I will now descend into a maudlin and completely gratuitous reminiscence of some of my favorite places in different countries:

- Orlando, Florida:

Capt. Applebees, seafood/country restaurant north of Orlando Fla. -- good all-American eats. Main attraction: a giant barrel of fresh homemade applesauce; just scoop up a bowl!


- Kingston, Jamaica:

Akbar -- Indian restaurant (I believe near the Old Kingston area). Absolutely the best Indian food I have ever eaten -- talk about hot curry!! Plus, it has the benefit of being named after a lesser Star Wars character .


- Paris, France

Oddly (hmm...) I wan't able to find any really memorable restaurant for the 10 days I spent there-- and I was staying with a French family. The food was good, but I have had better French food in New Orleans. The best meal I had was actually an Indian restaurant in one of those small picturesque towns near Chartres. Of course, I was traveling on a budget--you need real bucks to get the good food in Paris. Funniest moment: having a Parisian girl tell me in all seriousness that McDonald's in France is better than McDonald's in the U.S.


- Hamburg, Germany

I loved the food in Hamburg. The beer was even better. Any little hole-in-the-wall restaurant will have great beer. (again on a budget) I stayed at the Hotel Lilienhof, which is literally about 15 feet wide and 6 stories high. It's located near the Hauptbahnhof rail station. (everything has a 'hof' in it) Even though a room is barely big enough for two tiny beds, it's the kind of place that doesn't try to feed you the skimpy "continental" breakfast. You get bread, cheese, eggs, sliced meat, fruit, and great coffee. On the day I had to leave, I had to wake up at 5:30 AM. The matron actually woke and had breakfast ready for me!


- Two best steaks I ever had:

1. Pereira, Colombia (1975?) -- traveling with my dad, when I was 10 years old; we just picked a restaurant at random. They made the juiciest, most perfectly fried steak I have had to this day. Unfortunately, we were also robbed 3 times in the 2 hours we stopped in this city. Back in the 70s Colombia was known to have some of the most sophisticated pickpockets in the world. A proud art form. These days art takes a back seat to pure violence . (we lived for several years of my childhood in Colombia)

2. New Orleans -- worked on a blue-collar job for a little while in New Orleans, and found one of those crowded "locals-only" kind of places that I can't remember the name of. Second best steak I have ever had. A meal with wine only costs about $8. (By the way, food in New Orleans is generally great)


- Cancun, Mexico

No, I wasn't there on Spring Break or vacation, or any such raucous stuff. My church sent us on a volunteer mission to help build a church and school for a poor neighborhood. So we mainly saw the dingy poverty-stricken neighborhoods. On a dare, my friends and I ate tacos from a roadside vendor in some town square. Absolutely delicious, and completely different from what they call "tacos" in the U.S. Fortunately, my stomach was immune to Montezuma's Revenge, since I lived in Colombia -- not so my buddies (LL)


-- Toronto, Canada

In general I love Toronto. Of course, Toronto has all the obligatory big sophisticated city restaurants, most of which I rarely afford. But I personally can't think of a real food style known as "Canadian", except for Back Bacon, and those extremely sugary "butter tarts" that sit like lead in your stomach. Flame away, Canadians: I am half Canadian, and used to spend every summer in Muskoka, OK? (Well, I will say that Canada combines the best French and English food ideas -- the dessert, which they definitely do better than America). There's plenty of decent food, but the outstanding restaurants in Toronto are always the Indian, Pakistani, or Chinese places, seems to me. However, Toronto does win for kitschiest restaurant experience -- sitting in the revolving restaurant in the CN Tower.


- And, I could go on and on about different parts of the U.S., and there's lots of other good food where I live here in South Florida, especially of the Latin American spicy variety, but I have bored you enough for now. (I think I've lived a little longer than most of the fine young geeks here...)

Independent it has to be. I can not stand any corporate chain food, especially MC D's, I'd rather eat their card board than the burgers. Of course being a vego doesn't help

Rycamor's got such a good list, but I thought I'd add a worst meal ever.
A place called stumlockers (not sure of the spelling) some where in Flordia (can't remember exactly we went to so many places there from Orlando to St Augustine). They served us Gator and Snow Crab, and that stuff is supposed to be a delicacy - ughhhh I was sick for days

Anway speaking of food it is dinner time in kiwiland

Lol, Z.

Worst meal ever? If you guys are ever in the central PA area (though.. unless you live here, I doubt you would be ), stay FAR, FAR away from the Marilyn Monroe themed restaraunt in the Holiday Inn on the Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg. I ordered soup for an appetizer... it had hair in it... not A hair mind you.. hair... as in "a lump of". So I sent it back and asked for cheese sticks.... got em... frozen... yummy...

I ordered a burger as my meal which, of course, comes with fries. Damn fries have hair in them.. again... not A hair. Didn't eat them. I examind the burger carefully and it seemed okay. I get to the last bite, go to eat it..... there's a damned PIECE OF PLASTIC sticking out of the chunk of meat. At that point I had had it, got up, told them there was no way in hell I was paying them a penny, and left. Blaugh....

I don't know, but I have a feeling this place had them all beat. (Here's the restaurant part, if you want to skip the other insanity).

hahahahahahah. i advise you not to go directly to the restaurant part. great ideas for a motel and restaurant. LOL.