Who Wants Seconds?
LET’S HAVE A SHOW OF HANDS. How many of you have eaten in a restaurant this week? (Pause while I count digital hands)
OK, that’s about average. According to my in depth research I have learned that approximately (statistical wiggle room) 58% of us eat out at least once a week. The other 42% are still waiting for a table at the Texas Roadhouse.
I have to admit that we eat out more than we should. It is expensive, time consuming, not always healthy/nutritious, and leads us all into eating more than we should. But it is fun and I think that is why we do it so often. Let somebody else do all the hard work and the cleanup. Oh, yeah.
Delving back into the muck and mire of research I dug up this list of the most popular restaurants in the U.S. –
1) McDonald’s ($36.4 billion)
2) Starbucks Coffee ($17.9 billion)
3) Subway ($11.3 billion)
4) Taco Bell ($9.4 billion)
5) Burger King ($9.3 billion)
6) Wendy’s ($9.1 billion)
7) Dunkin’ Donuts ($8.2 billion)
8) Chick-fil-A ($7.9 billion)
9) Pizza Hut ($5.8 billion)
10) Domino’s ($5.3 billion)
Now THAT surprised me. The top restaurants are all fast-food joints. I expected to see something like Red Lobster or Denny’s on that list somewhere.
I’m cool with McDonalds being at the top, mainly because I’ve been a stockholder for 40 years. I rarely go there, but they help me to afford my visits to other restaurants.
With Starbucks I am personally responsible for a sizeable portion of that 17.9 billion in sales, but with my habit of lingering there I think that I may nudge it out of the fast food genre. But that’s just me.
With the exception of Dunkin’ Donuts and St. Arbucks all of these top spots serve from very similar menus. We are not a Vegan nation. If we were I think the top eatery might be the Garden Center at Wal-Mart.
During the course of my extensive research (all seven minutes) I bumped into a tidbit of information that almost made me go “Hmmm?” and then erase everything and go out for lunch. According to Google –
“The very first restaurant in the world was opened in Paris in 1765. A tavern keeper, Monsieur Boulanger, served a single dish — sheep’s feet simmered in a white sauce.”
Sheep’s feet…
Simmered in a white sauce…
Blech!
I doubt that Monsieur Boulanger asked his customers, “Do you want fries with that?
“Have you had your Sheep’s feet today – at Boulanger’s?” It does have a ring to it, but still…Do you think he offered a “Happy Meal?” – A sheep’s knee with some goat’s milk?
If all he served up was Sheep’s feet I cannot imagine that he stayed in business for very long. 90% of restaurants go belly up within five years, good restaurants even. Serve nothing but Sheep’s feet all the time and you better have a good wine list.
Sheep’s feet are not likely to be on my plate anytime soon, but if you have a really good white sauce, who knows?
Into the White Sauce to Simmer!
Down the Hall on Your Left 