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I used to grab a burger lunch at McDonald's frequently,
two or three times a week. That's frequently for me; I like to cook and
I'm too cheap to go out much. I'd take the family to Chi Chi's and Red
Lobster and Pizza Hut and never think twice about it.
Then I interviewed Don Feinberg, half of the brains behind
Brewery Ommegang and beer importers Vanberg & De Wulf. Don walked me
all over Ommegang's territory by the Susquehanna River in upstate New
York, took me on a wild brewery tour, and fed me local apples and cheese
sliced with a pocketknife while we sampled his delicious beers outside in
a beautiful summer's day. Then he gave me a ride into Cooperstown and
started talking about monoculture.
Monoculture
"The real problem," he said, "and this is
politics, not just beer, it’s monoculture versus diversity. That's what
we are fighting the fight for, for good beer and for better food against
McDonald’s and Monsanto.
"Look, monoculture actually means two
things," he said, waving one arm wildly as he navigated the small
road. "It means a lack of diversity. We’re only here for 60, 70, 80
years, I’d like to try as many things as I can, with as many peoples’
input, creativity, and fulfillment expressed as possible. The other thing:
99 times out of 100, you’re not giving me one choice because it’s
better for me. It’s because it’s better for you.
"Having said that," he said, calming a bit,
"the reason monoculture is so successful in the world is because it’s
predictable, and predictability leads to efficiency, and efficiency leads
to profitability, and that leads people to get involved in it.
The Seductive Key: It's Easier
"Why did everyone in America in the 1950s want to
have a franchise for McDonald’s?" He posed the question, and here
was the nut that would knock my noggin and make me realize exactly why
chain restaurants are a blight upon our land.
"Because the chances of you coming up with an
idea for a restaurant that would be that successful… there aren’t that
many creative people. It was easier for you to take this person’s
formula and make money off of it, and most of us have to pay the rent and
put the kids through college. So it’s easier to adapt things, especially
if what you’re adapting has proven to be successful.
"Monoculture is very powerful," he said in
conclusion. "But powerful and better are not always the same
thing."
No Chains On Me
I stepped out of that car a changed man. Today I shun
McDonald's and chain restaurants -- not entirely, because sometimes it's
all you got -- and go out of my way to try new local places,
wherever I am. It's one of the reasons I love upstate PA and NY; lots of
local eateries and stores left up there, and out on Long Island,
too.
I get questions about that, and I've got some
answers.
Do all chains suck?
No! John Harvard's Brew House doesn't suck, Rock Bottom (despite what
beer snobs say) emphatically doesn't suck. Regional chains like Quaker
Steak & Lube don't suck. Why? Because they all allow their local
operations a lot of flexibility. They don't always impose a menu, a beer list, or
(most importantly) suppliers. Besides, when does an expansion become a chain? When the second
place opens? The fourth? The tenth? It's like pornography: I know it when
I see it. If local people own a franchise
restaurant, isn't that a local business?
Yeah, like a Toyota made in Indiana is an American car. Follow the
money. Money's leaving the area, and what comes in? Orders, ideas, and
supplies. Headquarters doesn't care about supporting local suppliers, or
serving local beers, or making allowances for regional tastes. Why
is a successful chain restaurant bad for my town?
Because it sucks up loan money that local, unique businesses
could be using. A banker will always loan money to a guy with a chain
restaurant franchise over a guy with a new idea: the chain idea is safe,
proven, and bankable. It's also boring, leveling, and is never going to
make your town a destination. Sure, it's convenient, it's popular, it's
reliable. But what kind of great new food is going to come from a place
that gets its potatoes pre-peeled and pre-sliced in 100 lb. plastic bags
from a depot 500 miles away? Will people from far away come to your town,
shop in the other stores in your town, and tell other people where they
live to go to your town...because of your local Ruby Tuesday's? No, but
I've done all of that for the Miss
Albany Diner in Albany, NY, and it's worth the trip.
Eat Local
So the next time you're away from home, don't do
that stupid, cow-consistent thing and go to Applebee's, Shoney's, Denny's,
or Wendy's! Take just a little more time and ask around till you find a place,
a local place, a one of a kind place. Chances are good that you'll get
lucky and find a place like the Academy
Dinor in Erie, and you won't find bumbleberry pie at Applebee's! Needless
to say, this goes for beer, too. Chains hardly ever carry any decent beer,
and when they do, they don't know a damned thing about it. Local chains are often
exceptions, of course, like The
Winking Lizard's outstanding beer program in Cleveland. I'd still
stack Augusta's Winking Judge in Hamilton, ON up against the Winking
Lizard, though! (And you can find some outstandingly fantastic local foods
at the Hamilton
Farmer's Market.) It never ends, the quest for the
rare, the local, the different, the best. "Powerful and better are
not always the same thing." Reject the chains, and make your life more exciting at every turn. |
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Anti-Monoculture Links
Slow Food
The perfect anti-monoculture food site...except it largely
ignores beer and fawns over wine. Eh, the movement was founded in Italy, whattaya expect?! In any case, these
is good people. Slow Food is all about local, regional, unique
foods, recipes and raw ingredients, heritage fruits and endangered food
species. I particularly like the way Slow Food defends against big
corporations AND "government hyperhygienists."
Chowhound 
Jim Leff is a musician who thoroughly enjoys both great
beer and great food. But not fancy, madly elevated food: chow. Good eats.
The best dim sum, pizza, Mongolian barbecue, hot dog, Portuguese cookies,
you name it, he wants it. He built a website to exchange information on
great eats like this, and it works beautifully. Get into it.
DiBruno
Brothers "The House of Cheese"
Okay, it's "just a store," but they're local to
me and they Get It in capital letters. Great source for artisan cheeses,
and they made a good lead for a
story I did on high-end beer shops.
The New Rules Project
These guys are a lot more left than I am, but that doesn't mean we can't get
along. I like some of
their ideas. They support a "new
localism," and are much more widely anti-chain: anti Wal-Mart and
Walgreen, for example. Go to it, I say. I go to my local non-chain
hardware store for as much as I can, went to my local office supply store
until Staples put 'em out of business.
Wake Up
Wal-Mart
These guys are after Wal-Mart for their labor policies.
Does Wal-Mart charge low prices because that's all their employees can
afford? (Me, I'm mad at Wal-Mart for their
business policies.)
Michael Moore Loves Chains!
Hey, I didn't want to get political, but this just baffled me. Mr.
Anti-corporate himself, Michael "Roger and Me" Moore, was quoted
(rather saltily) in the Arcata Eye, a Humboldt County (CA)
newspaper, as being pro-chain restaurant and anti-small business. Here's
the whole amazing thing, as reported by Cory
Ratzlaff:
"Asked about Arcata limiting the number of pattern
restaurants to nine, Moore said he didn't think it was a good idea. But
what if corporate dominance transforms Arcata into "Anywhere,
USA?" "You are in Anywhere, USA," Moore said."
"Moore seemed to embrace capitalistic Darwinism. "If the small
businesses suck they'll be driven out of business," he said. "If
they got a good restaurant, people will go there and eat. You know in my
town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the
people that supported all the right-wing groups. They were the Republicans
in the town, they were in the Kiwanas, the Chamber of Commerce - people
that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small
clothing store salespersons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three
different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school
board. F**k all these small businesses - f**k 'em all! Bring in the
chains. The small businesspeople are the rednecks that run the town and
suppress the people. F**k 'em all. That's how I feel.""
[Moore evidently didn't consider the crap wages paid by
chains, the anti-union stance of chains, the agribusiness-grown food
bought by the chains...oh, never mind.]
A Chain Lover Responds
I recently received the following e-mail, and figured it wouldn't -- couldn't
-- hurt to put it up here. I have not received a response from my return
e-mail.
Lew,
I have read your article "Death to
Chains" and want you to know I strongly disagree with you. Some
chains have a impressive selection of beer and wine and to make a
blanket statement that Chains have a poor selection is uneducated, uninformed
and only serves the interest of businesses that brew beer. I worked for
a distributor with a small portfolio of imported beers from England,
Germany, Holland and the Ukraine. I found placement in several
"Chains" and moved product due to an educated consumer that
eats at "Chains."
My opinion, Van
My response:
Fair enough, Van. But I do balk strongly at your
statement that I'm uneducated, uninformed, and serving the interests of
businesses that brew beer. I did note that some local chains have good
beer selections. There are some few units of chains that serve non-mainstream beers, but it has been
my experience that most of them -- not all of them -- really don't
know much about what they have. Bennigan's tried a big beer program but
never got their servers motivated to support it, the key to a good beer
program, and it failed. Our local Don Pablo's unit briefly served local
beers, but a new manager dropped them. Red Robin serves Redhook and Widmer,
but that's at the behest of the A-B salesman. And the only interests I
"serve" are my own.
I still believe that few multi-state chains have a large beer
selection.
Where are you having your success?
Anyway, as I said in the piece, it's not even really about beer.
It's about the stultifying influence of chain restaurants in
general. That's a growing problem in my opinion...and that is, of course,
all that piece is.
Regards,
Lew Bryson
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