Food In The Fort

While you’re all (’all‘ in this case being defined as ‘a very large value of five‘) waiting for us to get our act together here at Food In The Fort, I thought I’d point out Scott Spaulding Greider’s post this morning at The Good City regarding his dinner experience at Granite City. For anyone not in the know, Granite City is a chain microbrewery and restaurant which recently opened up a new restaurant here in Fort Wayne. While a chain microbrewery might sound like something of an oxymoron and thus one should expect the dining experience to be subpar, Scott noted something particularly distasteful on his family’s night out.

There were no less than three large-screen flat-panel TVs in Granite City’s dining room. I can see why this rubbed Scott the wrong way, it certainly would me. I’m not a luddite or some anti-television crusader. Indeed, I think amidst the sea of excrement there are more than a few jewels. Besides, I have my guilty pleasures too. But, and I think the many would agree with me, I don’t want TV inescapably forced on me (and how can it be anything but inescapable when there’s three of the damn things) at my dinner table! Especially when I’m paying through the nose for the damn dinner!

OK, perhaps I’m channeling my inner curmudgeon. However, a night out is meant to be special. It’s meant to be a time away from the distractions of everyday life and a time for pleasant conversation and a good meal with friends and loved ones. So why would Granite City think that anyone wants to have that time intruded upon, and distracted from, by TV?

Almost forty years ago that professional curmudgeon Harlan Ellison described television as The Glass Teat. As he noted in the introduction to his volume of television criticism, the book wasn’t really about television so much as it was about “… the stupidity of much of our culture“. Granite City’s choice to foist television viewing onto its’ dinner patrons, presumably because the chain believes that’s what people want, only goes to show that not much has changed.

About the author:  Leo is a technologist and writer living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a transplant to the Mid West from Central New York and was promised cheaper gas and better winters. He feels somewhat lied to in this respect but otherwise finds the people pleasant. Read more from this author