Hipsters, tourists, and "artisinal" devil crabs...

Tiki Tom said:

You guys are cracking me up!
It takes all kinds to make a world. But don't forget the guys with big beards and Pendleton shirts who live in the heart of megalopolis (I've heard them called lumbersexuals) who are accompanied by straight-haired waifs in peasant skirts and all their food has to be gluten free. I hadn't ever even heard of gluten free until about ten years ago, and now you can't swing a cat without hitting a friend who can't eat gluten.

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Or peanuts (which I know and respect is real and dangerous to those who have it). It is just amazing how quickly these allergies popped up and how wide-spread they are.

These urban lumberjack types are all over the place around here, and it's really obnoxious -- this is a state where real, actual lumberjacks live and work, but the only wood these other guys have ever handled is...oh, never mind.

Fading Fast said:

If the au courant road leads north, then next you'll see a lot of young skinny (and wish they were skinny) guys in tight fitting suits, with flood pants, pocket squares and walnut-colored dress shoes coming your way. Have fun with that.

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I have a few tight fitting suits. But not because I'm skinny.

Tiki Tom said:

You guys are cracking me up!
It takes all kinds to make a world. But don't forget the guys with big beards and Pendleton shirts who live in the heart of megalopolis (I've heard them called lumbersexuals) who are accompanied by straight-haired waifs in peasant skirts and all their food has to be gluten free. I hadn't ever even heard of gluten free until about ten years ago, and now you can't swing a cat without hitting a friend who can't eat gluten.

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In defense of gluten free, my sisters, particularly my younger sister, are both legitimate coeliacs (diagnosed by actual trained physicians from an intestinal biopsy, not from an article in People) and cannot eat gluten. In fact, my younger sister was in serious condition for quite a while and had to be hospitalized several times until they figured out what it was. Gluten free has been a godsend to her, even if people roll their eyes and assume she's some new-age hipstress.

Tiki Tom said:

hadn't ever even heard of gluten free until about ten years ago, and now you can't swing a cat without hitting a friend who can't eat gluten.

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So true. Celiac disease has hit epidemic proportions.

LizzieMaine said:

These urban lumberjack types are all over the place around here, and it's really obnoxious -- this is a state where real, actual lumberjacks live and work, but the only wood these other guys have ever handled is...oh, never mind.

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Along those lines...here in Texas, we have plenty of real working cowboys, but also more than our fair share of the drugstore kind too. A cowboy you say? You live in a downtown loft and drive a Prius.

Gotta love the Fedora Lounge, even if I don't understand all (or much, or maybe even any) of what goes on. Where else could one find people whose playclothes are vintage patronize others whose playclothes are lumberjack, cowboy, or hipster?

Angus Forbes said:

Gotta love the Fedora Lounge, even if I don't understand all (or much, or maybe even any) of what goes on. Where else could one find people whose playclothes are vintage patronize others whose playclothes are lumberjack, cowboy, or hipster?

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No one has criticised actual lumberjacks or cowboys, just the poseurs.

Hipsters, on the other hand, are in season 24/7...

HudsonHawk said:

In defense of gluten free, my sisters, particularly my younger sister, are both legitimate coeliacs (diagnosed by actual trained physicians from an intestinal biopsy, not from an article in People) and cannot eat gluten. In fact, my younger sister was in serious condition for quite a while and had to be hospitalized several times until they figured out what it was. Gluten free has been a godsend to her, even if people roll their eyes and assume she's some new-age hipstress.

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A lot of health problems cleared up for me when I stopped eating wheat.

BUT, since I'm not as sensitive to it as someone with celiac, I don't request gluten-free meals in restaurants. It's a lot of work for them to sterilize cutting boards, utensils, etc.

HudsonHawk said:

Mrs. Hawk is an accountant and works with many family businesses, partnerships, trusts, what have you, and she's commented before that the pattern seems to be that the third generation is where family businesses start to fade. The grandkids of "mom" and "pop" are most often the ones who lose interest in the family business. That's why it's surprising, and kind of nice, to see family restaurants and such that have been run by the family for 100+ years.

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That's because the grandkids aspire to corporate cubicle dweller jobs with a generous benefits package.

MisterCairo said:

I HATE cilantro. It tastes like soap to me, and I have learned that people like me actually have a chemical reaction to it.

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Yep, it tastes like soap to me as well. I have heard that it's a genetic trait.

V.C. Brunswick said:

That's because the grandkids aspire to corporate cubicle dweller jobs with a generous benefits package.

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I've worked in a kitchen and I've worked in lots of cubicles. I'll take the cubicle.

Angus Forbes said:

Gotta love the Fedora Lounge, even if I don't understand all (or much, or maybe even any) of what goes on. Where else could one find people whose playclothes are vintage patronize others whose playclothes are lumberjack, cowboy, or hipster?

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I suspect that few among us are so costumed as all that. Still, I've occasionally found myself rolling my eyes at a guy who will obsess over the type of zipper in his leather jacket simultaneously ridiculing some relative youngster for his seemingly excessive concern over his hair style.

I got a LOT of old clothes. And I have several pairs of cowboy boots. Got a lotta Chuck Taylors, too. Them's just my duds. People will think what they will about that, although I question why anyone would give it much thought at all.

LizzieMaine said:

The black-turtleneckers are all here, striking poses in art galleries.

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We get everything first, and then it dribbles out to the rest of the country.

LizzieMaine said:

The black-turtleneckers are all here, striking poses in art galleries.

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When I was a kid, the closest thing I got to a mon-n-pop style food was the Woolworth's lunch counter. Good simple food at a fair price (for the day).

When I was a kid, I thought vegetables literally came in cans. I didn't see a fresh vegetable until I was in double digits. When a late-teens girlfriend made us a dish of fresh broccoli for a home-cooked dinner, it was a revelation.

These days, I think, at least around here, the closest thing to simple food at a good price is the diner. But this is Long Island, a creatively constipated place if there ever was one. There are lots of artisan restaurants popping up everywhere (a quick note here about our geography: in most places in the country that aren't cities, towns are spaced some distance apart with lots of land in between. Long Island is a series of towns, but you'd be pretty hard pressed to tell where one ends and another begins. The result of this is almost an unlimited number of mainstream businesses of every sort, which results in lots of repetition) and most of them that I've been in (which is not a huge very many) feature gussied up versions of dishes that most of us have eaten for years, along with correspondingly much higher prices.

Another side effect of this restaurant food specialization is the corresponding liquor specialization. If you go into a nouveaux Mexican restaurant, for example, you can get any number of fru-fru drinks with any of 9 dozen tequilas (at correspondingly inflated prices), but God help you if you'd like a vanilla vodka and soda.

One mom-pop of note, local to me, is the International Cafe in Bellmore. Literally family run, great quality food, a large gelato counter, and cash only. The interior looks like an eatery right out of my childhood.

And then there are the more-upscale-than-fast-food chains. I'm hard-pressed to find a better array of tasty more-or-less traditional dishes than the fare at Houlihan's, and they're resonably priced. And the one in Farmingdale is better than the one in Roosevelt Field, for example. TGIFriday's used to be better, imho.

And just about every ethnicity of food has a chain, as well as a string of growing artisinal independents. The main differences are how over-ingrediented the food is, and the prices, not to mention the staff 'uniforms.'

Most traditional restaurants have a basic serving uniform - usually some combination of black and (sometimes) white, arranged in a way that looks like what a server would wear. Artisinal servers? Their 'uniforms' could be just about anything, and usually the scroungier the better. T-shirts, ragged shorts, (canvas) sneakers, or sandals.

Lately all the men (boys) with long-enough hair have it up in a man-bun. Not a pony tail in the back of the head, but a bun on top of the head. Many are scroungily unshaven. It's all part of the atmosphere of the place, or so I'm told. So casual that it hurts (to look at).

There was a mom and pop burger place near me that we used to eat at. It was my dad's favorite place. A few years ago the owner, a Greek guy who owned the building, was offered $5 million for the property by 7-11 but turned it down. But recently the burger place closed as he had apparently retired and had either sold or leased the building to a dental clinic.

As for eating cheap my go to places are the food court at Sam's Club where you can get a large slice of pizza, equivalent to two slices, and a large drink with refills for $2.49 and Del Taco where I can get a couple of 99 cent burritos a drink, also with refills, and a churro for about five bucks.

^^^^^
I'm, um, thrifty that way, too. The "value menu" is where my eyes go.

But the dewy-eyed bride and I eat well most of the time. I do all the cooking. She tells me what she wants, and I try to accommodate the request.

You can't beat the frozen pepperoni pizza at the local Hannafids. Three bucks, and you don't have to eat again till tomorrow.

Angus Forbes said:

Gotta love the Fedora Lounge, even if I don't understand all (or much, or maybe even any) of what goes on. Where else could one find people whose playclothes are vintage patronize others whose playclothes are lumberjack, cowboy, or hipster?

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No worries. We certainly get ours...