Lunch in a medium sized town

I like to try LOCALLY owned places, I can’t eat at the ‘Man Buffet’ everyday, aka, Chipotle.

I went downtown today and had lunch with some friends. Something I do often. We ate at ‘The Olive Branch’ on Tejon. From the outside it looked very nice, however the inside was another story. To quote my friend, “I feel like I’m at Cracker Barrel”. They seated us in some back room that I think they use for overflow. Let me tell you my friends and I flow nothing over but our spirited beverages. I digress…The menu was on crack. They serve breakfast all day, have some sandwiches, pasta dishes, south of the boarder items and even cajan things. As I looked down at the plastic table cloth I knew not to expect anything great.

We asked for a drink menu,

Waiter...“It’s so old, what do you want and we can make it.”

Us…”Give us a moment please”

He walks away

To each other…”Holy shit if I knew what I wanted I wouldn’t ask for a drink menu.”

Me to friends…”We can get up and go. We haven’t eaten ALL the free bread yet.”

Friend…”No, that’s ok”

I knew it was going to be bad.

We get a waitress now and order our drinks and food.

One turkey BLT on a croissant, Salmon and Chicken Marsala.

I had the Chicken; it was dry and overcooked. I had ordered it over pasta but it came on garlic bread. It also came with what I think they claim as rice and lightly steamed vegetables both of which were more bland than family photos where everyone wears white shirts and kaki pants.

I didn’t eat much.

We paid we laughed and said not there again.

We then decided to go to one of our favorite LOCALLY owned boutiques. The owner, who knows us, asked where we had lunch.

Owner... “I love that place, it has great breakfast foods.”

Me…”It wasn’t that good, actually, it was crap.”

Owner…”You should try it again for breakfast.”

Me…”I didn’t order a breakfast item because I don’t like them.”

Me…”I like to shop and eat locally, unless it’s Chipotle, DSW or TJMaxx.”

Owner, “that’s nice…yada, yada, yada, there are so many chains here I hate it.”

We leave and get in the cool MiniVan and I start thinking…

We live in a capitalist society. We have Mom and Pop places, mega stores and Starbucks on every corner. Once upon a time those mega stores and Starbucks were started by an individual or small group. They grew and succeeded . Isn’t that what most small business want? To succeed?…but the moment a ‘chain’ moves in they get all upitty. (Not all of them, this is in general). What if it was THERE business that grew? I am sure they wouldn’t feel the same about chain stores.