The Ranger wrote:
> A chowhounder offered this up for thought and it brought an
> immediate visceral reaction from me. (I know you're all
> thinking, "Ranger? Visceral? No way!")
>
> The poster wrote:
> "Over the years they were your 'go to' place for a good meal in
> the neighborhood, to pick up a pizza, get your bagel & coffee
> or to carry out your favorite ethnic food. The
> owner/chef/manager/staff knew you by sight if not by name. You
> were a loyal customer and used to sing their praises. They were
> independent and local, not part of a dreaded chain.
>
> "At some point, you had to break-up with them. Not for economic
> reasons, but because something else wasn't working for you
> anymore. It was a conscious decision, almost as hard as
> breaking it off with your hairdresser or a decent boyfriend or
> girlfriend. For your own good, the relationship had to end! You'll
> still miss the old favorite restaurant or at least you'll miss
> their glory days, the convenience, the comfortable feeling you
> got & finding their replacement won't be easy, but it has to be
> done.
>
> "[..] What was it that made you decide to break-up with an old
> favorite restaurant?"
>
> The restaurant that I will no longer visit was a pancake house.
> I frequented it daily (morning, lunch, sometimes both meals)
> for eight years. I loved spackling the 49er pancakes with
> butter, wolfing down the gi-normous! apple pancake solo,
> getting the jitters from two cups of coffee, and treating
> family and friends to this 3-diamond eatery.
>
> Then the day came when the owners came by my table and sat down
> with another fellow. They introduced him as the new owner and
> explained how they were leaving to spend more time with their
> families. I wished them well and hoped to see them open another
> restaurant; they were very good restaurateurs.
>
> The next day, two servers that had been there from the first
> day of operation were missing from the staff. The following day
> everyone from the front of house were gone. The service went
> from highly competent to comedically incompetent. I was willing
> to cut them some slack, though, because even monkeys can
> eventually be taught.
>
> I was wrong.
>
> I talked to the owner about the changes I'd noticed and found
> him uncaring. I reduced my visits from daily to monthly, to
> yearly, to almost nothing for years. I wrote A Letter after one
> particularly unsatisfactory visit, ccing the corporate
> headquarters. I received a nice form letter telling me how
> important my feedback was and how Mr. Soandso was glad to have
> me as a customer.
>
> I took Daughter-unit Beta in because she's a budding foodie and
> willing to try many different foods.
>
> We were terribly unimpressed. Remember those monkeys I
> mentioned earlier? They were still there and still untrained.
>
> In a virtually empty restaurant, we waited to be seated. I
> finally went in search of the hostess. She was in the "office"
> talking on her cell. She did at least hang up and seat us.
>
> We waited for our tea and coffee, promised by said hostess.
> Beta went in search of her at that point. Again she was on the
> phone in the office, only very put out that she was expected to
> do anything beyond yakking.
>
> We waited for our order to be taken -- the waitress was taking
> her break -- but did scramble to take our order.
>
> When our food did finally arrived, I knew at once that it'd set
> up under the heat lamps for a long time. The manager decided to
> walk around the room at that point, so I call him over and
> pointed at our dishes. At that point the two of us got up and
> walked out.
>
> That was the last chance for this place. The relationship is
> closed.
>
> The Ranger
>
>
You just described every restaurant in our city that isn't run by
Asians. The good old folks who ran the local restaurants for years
either retired, sold out for lots of bucks, or just got tired. The
recent emigres, mostly ethnic Chinese, are running clean, good food,
restaurants with family servers, cooks, and grandpa/grandma greeter. One
Cajun-style restaurant that went from good to bad has been bought by a
Vietnamese family that kept the Cajun cooking and recipes and cleaned
the place up. We still eat there at least weekly after scorning it for
the two-years some round eye outfit had it.

Alas, our favorite pizza joint is now owned by a chain and has gone to
hell in a handbasket, we no longer go there. You're exactly right
Ranger, sometimes a relationship must end.