I almost spit out my tea…
(Yes, tea. I’ve been home with the flu. Tea seems like the proper beverage. Especially between episodes of The Crown and Peaky Blinders. Whisky. And tea. Quite right.)
…so, there I am, almost spitting out my tea, as a restaurant commercial plays in the background speaking of “small plates” and “sharing” and “bold, global flavors,” many more of the specific words we conceived as we concepted moonstones 10 years ago. (I made ‘concepted’ up. I like it.) We experienced the soft blowing industry breeze , saw the sprouts of urban influence on the dining landscape, were tickled at the thought of bringing such progressiveness to Chelmsford and The Merrimack Valley, YEARS before anyone else locally would be speaking the same language. Small plates. Sharing. Global. Spicy. Dynamic.
Yes, we were ahead of our time. And yes, approaching our 10 year anniversary, we can say we have been successful, even though much less progressive, less excellent and less dynamic restaurants do better sales. That’s my fate. Blazing trails means trudging through tall grass. Alas, it is the somewhat staid Merrimack Valley (no offense intended), where Italian, Mexican and Chinese food is still hot!
(I am not whining. Just sayin’)
And now….RED LOBSTER!? Seriously. Red Lobster is going global, tasting plates, rogue. I’m so sad. (Channeling John Oliver…”How is Red Lobster still a thing!?”)
This moment reminded me immediately of a menu meeting years ago, as we discussed being more fun, being more dynamic going forward and one of our chefs suggested “sliders.” That very same week I saw sliders advertised at Uno’s. I maybe should have listened. I think sliders are still a thing.
Globally inspired sliders anyone? On a pretzel bun. With sea salt. Sigh.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.