Dated

It's been a long, long time since I've griped about something here on Roadfood but this one quirk is driving me up the wall and I'm ready to scream.
 
I'm just sick and tired of so many people on Yelp and Urbanspoon who will slam a restaurant (Food and everything else)  just because  the atmosphere is "dated".
 
I for one, love "dated" restaurants, they present as regionally unique.  Just because a restaurant doesn't look like a place that the Kardashian sisters would go to, doesn't mean that it should be likened to a retirement home.
 
I say chalk it all up to the ongoing media induced "Wallmallification" of America.
 
 

I'll go with you on that one.
The good news, is that those making remarks like that are telling you, in just about so many words, that their review is useless.
 

Agreed and agreed.

I think in depends on what's meant by dated. We have some "duct tape on the seats" places that makes you wonder whether the place sees a broom and mop all that often.

Good topic, although I am a little disappointed. I was hoping WJ was going to tell us about his social life!

I don't know why, but when I saw the topic, I thought WJ was posting pictures from his little black book
 
Give me Charlie's Pool Room decor any day!  I am doing a lot of work in lovely Downtown Pittston.  Tin ceilings, brick interior walls, etc., priceless!  And if the food is good, who cares anyway.

buffetbuster


I was hoping WJ was going to tell us about his social life!

Me, too. And I was going to talk about dating lleechef before we married.

We have a place we love to go to and have for 20+ years. To us, it is fine but to someone new, it is definately "dated" (stuffed ducks and turkeys mounted, portraits of champion steers, lotsa plastic flowers). I guess I am kind of happy it turns some people off.....     stay away and leave this place with really good home made food to those of us who love it for the food and friendly service.  

I was in a dive bar just this week for the first time since some 50 or so years ago back when I was buying 6-packs out the back door in my underage years - the Workingman's Friend in Indianapolis. I think it looked the same. The coal yard down the street was gone.

After reading this, I believe I am very much dated.
 
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Dated does not equal Dirty
(This regards the restaurant part of the above discussion.)

You're absolutely right. We've got places that are dated, clean and have great food and we've got places dated, dirty and have good food. I've recently had to stop going to one of the latter because of the dirty.
 

wheregreggeats.com


Dated does not equal Dirty
(This regards the restaurant part of the above discussion.)

BB, joerogo and  MH
 
I don't think Roadfood has "the funny papers" section yet, so I can't bring up my social life
 
dated doesn't mean dirty. For example, Hollyhock Hill in Indianapolis,  and Johnny's Cafe in Omaha, among others, all Roadfood classics seem to be the target of the "trendy" yelpers referring them as "retirement homes".
 
This is some of the criteria I weed out- when looking at yelp reviews.
 
ces1948
 
funny you should mention duct tape. Two years ago I visited a great little seafood joint in Norfolk VA called the Willoughby Inn, the fried oysters were fantastic, the place was certainly dated, however the seats definitely needed to be re-upholstered.

One of My all-time favorite place was a very dated dive in Arlington, VA:  Whitey's.  Unpadded wood booths, knotty pine walls decorated by (among other things) a buck's head with Christmas lights in his antlers, a smiling picture of Dick Nixon, and a neon sign: "EAT or go to your room!"  Broasted chicken, beer-battered onion rings, cold beer, pinball, darts, country music, and the occasional willing waitress.  Heaven on earth!

Sundancer7


After reading this, I believe I am very much dated.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

 
"dated" ? naahhh.....just "pickled" 

Some of the best food I have ever had has been in out dated, but clean restaurants/cafes/ diners and drive-ins. If I remember right all the waitresses were named Alice and the cook was named Bud..........

i'd rather eat at a dated rest than eat at a olive garden or applebees.most of the people on those sites only think that mac and cheese comes in boxes only .

That roadfood favorite O'steen's is in my town, and certainly dated, but it doesn't make the food any less delicious (maybe more delicious). I have a great affinity for those old lady type places, where you might take your octogenarian mother to for mother's day. The Holiday House in Deland Fl and Claudia Sanders Dinner House in KY being 2 of my favorites

The Night before I got married, 52 years ago, My best man and I, both under age, were in "Sloppy Eds" Bar and Grill eating burgers and drinking beer. 2 Coon Hunters came in with a burlap sack with 4 dead Coons in the bag and dumped them on the floor for everyone to examine, sat down and had a couple beers.
I was back there a few years ago. The place was the same, the burgers and beer were still good but they had cleaned up the coon blood off the floor! That's all that had changed, except Sloppy Ed had passed to that watering hole in the sky. 

Why'd they clean up the blood?

agreed with you, Wandering Jew.
I am  not all that old, but find a special feeling in places that do look outdated. I do not care. Can't say some of friends care for it. 
Example: my favourite breakfast place, great food and not pricey, it is old and very outdated. The waiteress are all in their fifties and sixties and have bleached blonde hair, wear jeans and t shirt and call you honey and sweetie. I found those that enjoy food, like the place, but some other friends like Cora's, an expensive and very trendy breakfast eatery. Bleh. Give me personality, age and wear, and good food..and i am a happy girl. 

kland01s


We have a place we love to go to and have for 20+ years. To us, it is fine but to someone new, it is definately "dated" (stuffed ducks and turkeys mounted, portraits of champion steers, lotsa plastic flowers). I guess I am kind of happy it turns some people off.....     stay away and leave this place with really good home made food to those of us who love it for the food and friendly service.  

kLAND01s, please tell me the name of the restaurant you are talking about. I grew up in Barrington a long, long time ago and it may be one that I remember and would want to come back to!
Lynn

Well, if it comes down to "dated", I think Boston's Durgin Park wins..............and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better meal anywhere..even if the waitperson in those non-dated places wants to introduce themselves and give you their life history and philosophy..after telling you that ...at 20-something....they've becomne a "sauce-master"

The charm that develops over many years, sort of like a patina. The strata of many years accumulation gives a mature quality to many places. How many popular and memorable restaurants decades and generations old have "rennovated" either by new management or an agressive, younger generation wound up losing their loyal customer base and signature tastes? If it ain't broke, you don't fix it. 

Amen, brother!!  The more dated the better

I obviously agree with everyone, or I wouldn't have started the rant.
 
Like Durgin Park, Katz's Deli in NYC (actually just about all the Deli's in NYC) are about as dated as you can get, but if you can find as good a Pastrami elsewhere (that goes with your "Cosmo") then be my guest.
 
 Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy going to trendy places too, there's quite a few here in Rhode Island (at least THEY think it's trendy) and there's good food there too, but I would never exclude  a "dated" restaurant over a more contemporary/trendy restaurant or deliberately slam one "just because"

This got me thinking about some of my very favorite Roadfood restaurants (Stroud's, Bobcat Bite, Hob Nob Hill, Dinner Bell, etc.) and just about every single one could be accused of being dated.  Oh well, those restaurants are great, just the way they are.
 
I'm glad those people think the restaurants are dated.  They are crowded enough without them! 

Classics are always good. We here in portland always seem to be looking for the next hot chef. I personally have enjoyed the increased variety of foods now available because of food carts, treasure the retro virtues of the old school Ringside steakhouse(where sam and trudy took me 4 my birthday dinner)and even love the virtues of the Salt and Straw, a trendy ice cream place (with the lines outside the door so brilliantly satirized in the  Portlandia t.v. show) and with delightfully oddball flavors. A combination of the timeless places and the new and hip is what makes dining in Portland so marvelous.

Buffetbuster reports that they're going to tear down the original Lo Lo's Chicken And Waffles in PHX!
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/tm.aspx?m=699761&high=
We have several courses of Action:

1. Shoot the Messenger, OR
2. Organize a large group of RF'ers to stage a sit-in when the Bulldozers and wrecking ball arrives.
3. Appeal to Mrs. White of Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe to intercede with her Grandson, Larry "LoLo" White, to save the Hallowed chicken shack.
4. Have the place put on the Historical Registry list!
5. I have a Sneaking Suspicion that Larry, "LoLo" White may have sold the business to some chain. If so, I hope he chokes on a chicken bone!

EDIT: I sent an email to Larry "LoLo' White and he replied - "Yes Sir. We've out grown our lil house. Need mo elbow room. It'll be sweet. You'll see."

  Well Gosh, THIS isn't the topic I thought it would be!
     Interesting though, I am the person that LOVES to go to Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. reviews and sort them by ratings ( bad first )  to hear about how Dude & his date Had an ABIZMAL  (actual quote)  time at ________.  
       The best ones are the ones where the very nature of the place is what they are yarking about.
    Durgin Park is an excellent example. O'Steens, Pepe's (or Sally's), Rendezvous, Katz', Langer's, The Salt lick,(I hear the chicken ceasar salad is TERRIBLE and you will smell like bbq smoke all DAY!)  
  Or for a real laugh, check out ANY steamed cheeseburger restaurants, The west coast blogger folks go WILD with hatred.
  It's awesome.