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Americans plan to dine out at more chains


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Nation's Restaurant News lists the results of a survey of diners. I was intrigued to see that the survey authors weighted the results by the number of store locations. Still, it's an interesting package.

 

Cheesecake Factory wins, hands down. Texas Roadhouse, with which I'm not familiar, comes in second.

 

 

[Cheesecake Factory] also scored the highest rankings in six out of 10 characteristic ratings of the more than 60 restaurants included in the survey. Ratings were granted against characteristics including food taste and quality, atmosphere, and cleanliness. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, which placed second in the favorite-restaurant vote, when indexed to system size, scored the highest for kid friendliness and speed of service, the survey said.

 

Based on system size, Texas Roadhouse also had an 8-percent favorite vote among respondents, while Olive Garden and Ruby Tuesday followed with 5 percent and Red Lobster and P.F. Chang’s came next with 4 percent of the vote. The highest-scoring family-dining chains by that metric were Golden Corral and Cracker Barrel.

 

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article/consumers-rank-favorite-restaurant-chains#ixzz1BglWxcqc

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Texas Roadhouse is a chain restaurant that has nothing to do with Texas, other than its name and signage and schtick. It was founded in Indiana.

 

That's all well and good, except that they advertise their special "Texas-style" "fall-off-the-bone" ribs.

 

As most Texans can tell you, saying that ribs are "fall off the bone," is not a compliment. It means that the texture of the meat is mushy, in the manner of a roast that has stewed far too long. If you were entering those ribs in a barbecue competition, and the meat falls off the bone, they're immediately disqualified. I don't understand people acting like it's difficult to produce "fall off the bone" ribs. It's not hard to overcook meat. Like any other meat, you just cook the hell out of it, until the meat does fall off the bone, texture be damned.

 

I don't care if that's how they want to cook their ribs, and I don't care if that's how some folks want to eat their ribs, but I wish they'd change the name to "Indiana Roadhouse."

 

That said, when you walk in the door, there's a meat case there, displaying the steaks, allowing you to select the one you want. That's pretty nifty.

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  • 1 month later...

Some years ago, I had a client in Miami that I took to lunch. I was all set to take him toJoe's Stone Crab. He wanted to go to the Cheescake Factory. In this case, the customer is always right so I had a salad with him and went to Joe's by myself after...:)

 

There's no question the Cheesecake Factory is popular in these parts but then so is California Pizza Kitchen.

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This makes me remember an article in the Augusta, Maine daily newspaper last year on the planned opening of a Cracker Barrel in town. The writer somehow got onto a local couple who were totally thrilled, since they'd been driving to New Hampshire to get to the formerly closest Cracker Barrel.

 

Yep, they drove right past Portland, Maine, which as some know offers a huge range of culinary delights, & went twice as far to get to a f-ing Cracker Barrel. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This makes me remember an article in the Augusta, Maine daily newspaper last year on the planned opening of a Cracker Barrel in town. The writer somehow got onto a local couple who were totally thrilled, since they'd been driving to New Hampshire to get to the formerly closest Cracker Barrel.

 

Yep, they drove right past Portland, Maine, which as some know offers a huge range of culinary delights, & went twice as far to get to a f-ing Cracker Barrel. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

Yes, these are the folks that go to France and dine at the nearest McDonald's... Unfathomable, but true.

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