Eating Normal

I recently pitched a food related story idea to a local writer that got rebuffed right away. I picked a bad day to call. I heard a lot about pending vacations and deadlines and then I was offered a criticism of our area's fine dining restaurants. It ended with a complex little question; “where do normal people eat?”

This question has stuck with me. I’ve thought about this a lot. The actual question, I think, was "Where do normal people (who can't afford fine dining) eat?" I guess I was offended by it, to some degree. To flesh it out I recently made it a topic of conversation with friends at a dinner gathering – keeping names out of it, for obvious reasons. The answer from everyone in the group was the same – we are the "normals," we love eating out, we do it often, and we eat, well, everywhere.

It’s true, normals are everywhere. For example I sat next some normals at Becky’s in Portland two weeks ago. Then I ran into some normals at FRESH in South Portland a few days later. Friday night I sat with normals at the Browne Trading Company and Eve’s at the Garden (a gBritt client) caviar dinner. There were a thousand or so normals standing patiently for concessions during the Cape Elizabeth Vs Mountain Valley football game. Then, unbelievably, I saw normals at Vignola eating one of the best looking pizzas I have ever seen. Of course these are just nearby encounters with normals. Maybe folks living west of me are abnormal – wrong. Guess what I saw when I stopped for a bite at Sierra’a in Gorham, normals. Damn normals. Seems you can’t turn around without running into one.

It seems that a better question is where do abnormals eat out? That’s the place I want to experience. They’re not at Fore Street in Portland, it’s filled with normals. You won’t find them at Bray's Brewpub in Naples, that's where all the cool normals go.

My point is pretty obvious, right? We, the normals, eat at at fine dining restaurants -- possibly a splurge to celebrate a birthday or anniversary, etc. We also eat at quick serve joints, chains, mom-and-pops, etc. Normals eat meals made outside of the home every week, about twice or more, in fact. I looked at restaurant.org to check it. (Another interesting statistic from restaurant.org is that nearly half of us have worked in the restaurant industry at some time during our lives. Hmm, explains a lot.)

For me, eating normal means enjoying dinner with Gillian at our favorite place -- and you'll probably find white linen on the table. When we take our kids out for lunch or dinner, we usually choose places featuring bench décor. Normal, right? Not for our kids; they still think it's special. And making it special is what a meal eaten outside of the home with loved ones is all about. At least that's the way this normal sees it.

Cheers