The Manifesto: Part 1

We all have things that turn us off about restaurants. Clues, tells, slights that despite our best attempts to move on, sorrow the enjoyment of dining out. For the next few days/weeks, Blackened Out will present its pet peeves with restaurants. Rather than one long complaining diatribe, we will break up the complaints. If you have a suggestion, please email us.

Number 1: Concept Restaurants
If your menu has an opening paragraph discussing how the owners hatched the "concept" for this restaurant while white water rafting through the Costa Rican rainforest and snacking on granola and river trout, you just might be a concept restaurant. I am all for restaurants having an identity, a soul; what I can not stand is something that is so obviously geared to a specific market oriented audience.

You want to make the best wings around? Great! You want to devliver them to the table by a bio-fueled robot who dispenses dipping sauces based on the type of music on the diner's ipod? Try again.

Japanese Fusion mixed with Creole ingredients has about as much appeal as a proctology appointment. Another Spanish Tapas/Vodka Bar, that is about as welcome as a fart in a sauna.

Luckily, New Orleans is spared this non-consensual assault on good taste. But the rest of America is under attack from these conceptual connundrums.

I got a good concept restaurant idea. Excellent food, efficient, friendly service, and comfortable surroundings; lets perfect that concept first.