On Chains
Chains aren’t bad. I understand the knee-jerk distaste for these identical food-based businesses that pop up all over the place. Occasionally that distaste verges on hatred. And this hatred is blindly directed at anything that’s a chain.
This is not to say that all chains are good. Clearly, they are not. In fact most chains aren’t. But the fact that good chains can exist proves that the problem isn’t in restaurants being chains themselves, but the business practices of certain operations.
The only reason this is on my mind is because irisira brought it up yesterday in her comment about Caffe Vero:
If coffeehouses that have more than one location cannot be chosen for this category, then Caffe Vero is, sadly, out – they have another (actually, the first) location in Lake George Village. They also have some kind of connection to the Chocolate Mill, though I’m not sure if it is a business agreement or if it is more connected than that. If it is just, single location of a certain coffeehouse, whether it be a standalone or a “chain” (2 locations does make a chain, technically), then carry on.
Since this wasn’t a question, it wouldn’t be addressed in the next installment of Ask the Profussor. For the record, I was reading the Best Single Location Coffee Joint as having a single location in the Capital Region. Since the second Caffe Vero location is up by Lake George, I consider it just beyond our boundaries.
Regardless, I contest the notion that two locations technically make a chain.
At the high end, there are many world famous chefs who have a well-known restaurant in a major city, that have a sister restaurant in Las Vegas. But even our local Italian bakery Bella Napoli has a spot in Troy and one across the river in Latham. Are these restaurants chains?
With only two locations there are no off-site kitchens that produce the food. There are no decisions about ingredients or sourcing being made by corporate brass who are more focused on the bottom line than taste. While there may be a consistent look and feel to the establishments the décor is not produced by a corporate design studio.
Granted, in some ways true chains manage growth better than independent restaurants that open up a second location.
Take something on the high end like The French Laundry and Per Se. When the NYC restaurant opened, a live two-way video feed was set up so the chef could supervise both kitchens from either coast. As cool as this is, it reveals a problem: Without the head chef at the helm, the place would suffer. Larger operations like Morton’s The Steakhouse (I miss when it was called Morton’s of Chicago) don’t require such micromanagement, much to their credit. We can see the ill effects of such diverted attention locally at the Capital City Gastropub which I believe would be better if the head chef didn’t have his hands full at the Wine Bar across town.
Morton’s isn’t bad. Yes, I’d prefer to have happier meat that was dry aged. But I have had some delicious meals there.
Sure, there are some chains that try to dumb down the food to make it more appealing to a wider audience, and that’s a problem. I once read an article about menu development for The Cheesecake Factory, and how they were developing a puttanesca recipe without anchovies. This made me incredibly upset, since anchovy is fundamental to this dish. That’s like trying to make a bruschetta without using bread.
Chains may engage in this kind of behavior on a greater scale, but these kinds of bad decisions can be found in independent family restaurants all around the country. How many independent Italian restaurants have a Bolognese sauce on the menu that is nothing more than tomatoes with ground beef or sausage? Far too many.
The same goes for using large quantities of pre-made food. One often takes for granted that this is the purview of places like TGI Fridays. But locally, Peaches Café in Albany proudly buys bags of soup that they simply heat and serve.
There’s a good side to chains too. Because of their scale they can take some degree of risk and bring a proven concept into a new market. The overall level of coffee in America is better now than it was 20 years ago, and Starbucks had a lot to do with that. Have you ever had Bon Chon Korean fried chicken? It’s amazing, and it’s a chain. One could make an argument that its arrival on our shores helped to blaze the trail for Korean cuisine’s recent popularity.
Sure, chains have lots of problems. And even good ones can suffer as they continue to grow and take on franchisees. I contend that Tony Roma’s is a mere shadow of the restaurant I enjoyed in my youth (although it’s hard to say for certain given my relative tender age at the time). I’m also worried about Five Guys, and their ability to source good meat and potatoes as their weekly purchasing requirements dramatically increase.
At some point, things just get too big. But big is also important. Big is how change happens. And places generally get big because they have plenty of fans. People aren’t morons. They support restaurants they enjoy. Granted, those people may be prioritizing things like value and convenience over taste and health.
There are plenty of good reasons to hate most chain restaurants. But, hating it because it’s a chain is not just silly, it is wrong.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
I’m not quite sure what you’re driving at in regards to the Wine Bar/Gastropub. Any time I’ve gone to the Gastropub, if Chef Baker isn’t there, Chef Everleth (the owner, and a CIA graduate) is, and he’s expediting.
There are plenty of fine dining empires that have been built without the need for extreme measures (like installing hidden cameras). Take for example people like Emeril and Bobby Flay, who can’t possibly be at all of his restaurants at once, and, even then, each restaurant has its own concept and personality that, although branded by the chef, may have little actual influence from them.
A very detailed and informative look at how Gordon Ramsay’s brand expanded into the international powerhouse that it is now is detailed in his book, “Playing with Fire.” In that book, he talks about many of the directions his brand has taken and how he is able to keep the standards consistent and unique all over the world; a lot of thought goes into it, and there are many people involved in keeping it going. It’s actually a very inspiring and significant read for anyone who is learning about the restaurant business.
@derryX — Another good example of the type of chef-restaurateur you mention is Jose Andres. He takes the time to hire someone to run each kitchen who is well-qualified and committed to the type of cuisine that place produces. Hence each restaurant excels at its given variation on his theme (small plates).
Sigh. Now I will have to think up an excuse to visit my old homestead so I can go to Zaytinya again.
If (at least for the purposes of the poll) “Chain” = >1 in the area, then Uncommon Grounds is obviously the best chain coffeehouse; I think that the case for Caffe Verio over e.g. Java’s is clear (the latter’s coffee just isn’t that good, sadly, and although the scones are good they are also inferior to those served by CV. If I have to decide between CV and UG, though, there is much less clarity in my response.
I don’t have a problem with chains per se either, as long as expansion is handled right. But I agree with the thrust of your post. What I too have seen far too often is that the proprietor of a great little restaurant will try to parlay that success into another location, then another, and without strict oversight (as in the case of the French Laundry/Per Se, as you mention), the result is a product that at each location is markedly inferior to the original, which usually suffers as well. I certainly understand the desire to make money, but I can’t seem to look at that first bloom of expansion as anything but a bad omen.
DerryX as much as I love Gordon Ramsay, or, love first British kitchen nightmare series Gordon Ramsay your comment is just a little bit past its freshness date- more than a couple Ramsay restaurants have lost Michelin stars over the past year or two.
I also think chain restaurants like sodium garden and sodium cheesecake factory and expansions of French Laundry and michelin culinary empires are two separate topics.
I accidentally ate at Pizzeria Uno about 3 months ago and it had chicken tikka masala on its menu. ‘the fuck?!
Speaking of Bruschetta how many Bruschettas are really just toasted bread with can tomatoes thrown on top, the bread not rubbed with garlic etc?
There are indeed some good chains on larger scales like Morton’s. And on the East Coast we unfortunately are deprived of the good fast food chains. In n Out Burger destroys Five Guys and Chick Fil-A is…so good.
I think the biggest trend of the last two decades and the most dangerous chain trend has been the sodium garden, TGI-sodium-Fridays- these chains that aimed for the mid tier dining options of pasta, cheaper steaks and American foods have hit real restaurants the hardest. And, if my comment up to this point hasn’t made clear, and even though I generally think salt is healthy and never unhealthy, their food is seriously 20% sodium. Its ridiculous.
Well, my definition was in the very strictest sense – if I remember correctly, Starbucks was booted from Pike Place when it opened a 2nd store as it was, by the Pike Place rules, now considered a chain. It obviously is not a Chain in the sense that we usually think of it. I wouldn’t, however, put the Wine Bar on Lark/Capital City Gastropub in the same category. Caffe Vero is the same shop in LG, whereas WBoL and CCG are two different restaurants with two different concepts that are owned by the same individual.
You also make a fair point about Lake George being beyond the boundaries for the Best Of poll. I don’t disagree, but it is up for speculation. Technically speaking, the TU doesn’t cover Glens Falls (they don’t cover north of Saratoga for “local news,”), so I think using the TU’s coverage area is probably the safest bet.