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I had mentioned this in chat, and I wanted to hear other such experiences. When I was a kid growing up in the south Florida suburbs, we ate out almost never. My parents were very poor. My mum would turn off the breaker to the water heater as soon as everyone was done showering, so that the water heater wouldn’t keep drawing power all day. Hopefully this gives you some idea of how careful she had to be with money, so that we all had enough food and other basic needs sorted. There were six of us in the family. On our birthday, we’d get a special treat of Little Caesar’s pizza. She’d order the two medium pizzas for all 6 of us. Aside from that, they were not going to have us eating restaurant food ever, because a single meal could blow through the grocery budget for the month. So what about others treating us kids to restaurants? My mother was paranoid that others would expect her to reciprocate the eating out treat at some point, so she’d flat out refuse to let anyone else treat us to food outside either. There was an exception. My father’s cousin, who lived in Texas, would come over with his wife. They were rather wealthy, as they owned a catering business back in Texas. The man loved to flash his money around and play the big shot. When he’d come to town, my mom would let him treat the family, because he and my dad basically grew up as brothers, and she wasn’t about to get involved in weird family dynamics with my dad’s side of the family. My uncle would want to take us to the fanciest restaurant in town: the Olive Garden! Never mind that we lived in short driving distance to Miami, and all it had to offer. Nope. The height of sophistication for my family was the Olive Garden. Oh man how fancy I felt when we went there. They had breadsticks that they’d give you. For free! Clearly this meant that the place is so fancy that they could afford to just give stuff away! This was in the days before I was really cooking a lot, and spending hours a day watching food network. Anyway. As I got older, I realised that the pasta I made at home somehow tasted better than Olive Garden. It wasn’t that their food was *bad* (in my eyes), but rather that I could make something nicer tasting at home that didn’t end up with a giant oil slick on there when all was said and done. Around the time that I outgrew the Olive Garden, I was in high school, and my best friend’s mum took us out to Cheesecake Factory at the mall. I was in heaven. Here was a menu that’s several pages long! That must mean that the chefs in there are super talented! How else could they make so many different things! And for dessert, you could get whatever cheesecake you wanted!!! They not only had breadsticks, but a whole rear end bread BASKET with various kinds of breads! And here we were, eating this stuff after going shopping at the mall! To buy stuff brand new! Anything we bought was from the thrift store, a garage sale, or out of a dumpster or passed down from family friends. Clothes. Shoes. School supplies were bought during office supply sales, and we’d send in the mail in rebate cards to get the money back. Any time we’d drive somewhere, my mom would pepper in all her errands on the way. So going to an event was an all day thing. Get ready early. Pile into the car. Hit up like 3 grocery stores to get the one thing on sale there, after wandering the grocery store to ensure she didn’t miss any sales that weren’t marked in the circular. Several hours later, arrive at the destination. This was to save on gas. Here was a mom who casually got in the car because her daughter needed a thing, went to the mall, got the thing (along with a few other things that piqued her interest), and then was like “hey kids, I’m in the mood for Cheesecake Factory. You in?” I thought this lady was a millionaire or something. Eventually, when I started making my own money at a job, and could explore other places on my own, it dawned on me that I didn’t really care for the chains and their aggressively bland food. What about you? What did you think was the height of sophistication before you learned better?
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Jun 19, 2022 12:05
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When I was a kid, we went to a Chinese restaurant that had orange sorbet for dessert. Which came in a hollowed out orange! I thought this was the greatest thing ever, and wondered how they did it, what skilled chefs they had that could cook Chinese food AND carve out the insides of oranges… What I realise now is that they bought these in bulk as a mass produced product.
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Jun 19, 2022 13:32
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I remember when we went out for Chinese food in the UK when I was kid, in probably the late 80s? And we all got all dressed up in like trousers and jacket and stuff to go to this place. I guess Chinese food wasn't like it is now in the UK/was in the US at the time, this was fancy. Little moist towelettes at the table settings and poo poo. Can't have been all that amazing, I don't remember the food at all, but it was definitely an Event.
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Jun 19, 2022 13:47
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For the longest time I associated peppermints at the exit with class, and to this day that is the first thing I look for at a restaurant  Besides that, non English in the menu for sure. Lord forgive me for butchering French and Spanish. Thank goodness I couldn't even attempt Chinese or Japanese.
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Jun 19, 2022 15:57
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Eating out was also a treat for us Growing up (money wasn’t lying about but it wasn’t tight like you had it). For birthdays we’d go to a steakhouse or, more excitingly, a Chinese restaurant, where egg drop soup and bow ties (fried pastry in syrup) I can still remember, 40 years on. A bit later was the even more exotic Mongolian barbecue.
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Jun 19, 2022 16:57
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Have a slightly different perspective from being lower middle class in Germany in the 90s. A pizza place that was in a different city, so we only ate there when visiting relatives. Actually talking to the cook and giving a true custom order felt like absolute luxury to my kid self. I don't think it was actually high class, just my cousin's favourite. On the drive there we went for the other "fancy" treat that was McDonalds. My parents didn't like McD, so we only went there at Autobahn reststops around twice a year. And you couldn't really find good burgers anywhere in Germany until the 10s. They also considered ordering delivery a waste of money so that was a basically unachievable level of fanciness to my younger self. I had my mind blown at some point when I was staying over at a friend's place and they just ordered some. When I was an older teen and peak weeb, I saw a flier for the first running sushi restaurant in the city. That was absolute peak fancy to me, back then.
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Jun 19, 2022 20:51
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When my brother and I got our report cards back my parents would take us to a Chinese place that probably was midlevel and used to having big dim sum service every day, but for us I think we had to 'dress nice' and yeah I dunno we just ordered typical Chinese diner kinda stuff like lemon chicken, Wor Won Ton etc it wasn't like a full peking duck presentation or anything. I don't know why this was a thing, they should have just brought us to a normal Chinese diner and had the same food for half as much $.
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Jun 19, 2022 21:06
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VelociBacon posted:When my brother and I got our report cards back my parents would take us to a Chinese place that probably was midlevel and used to having big dim sum service every day, but for us I think we had to 'dress nice' and yeah I dunno we just ordered typical Chinese diner kinda stuff like lemon chicken, Wor Won Ton etc it wasn't like a full peking duck presentation or anything. I don't know why this was a thing, they should have just brought us to a normal Chinese diner and had the same food for half as much $. But would you have remembered it now, as an adult, in the same way?
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Jun 19, 2022 22:49
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therattle posted:But would you have remembered it now, as an adult, in the same way? Yeah that's a fair point, maybe not.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:25
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Buffets. All that food, and you could get as much as you want?! It was always hyped up as a special treat. Wasn't until later that I realized it was my mom's way of giving us a nice (enough) meal out, without breaking the bank feeding three preteens/teenagers at once.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:30
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AngryRobotsInc posted:Buffets. All that food, and you could get as much as you want?! It was always hyped up as a special treat. This. Especially the buffet at Pizza Hut or Double Dave's (local chain). drat, now I want pizza.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:47
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It's actually kinda fancy I guess, but prime rib. Once every few years family would come in to town and my uncle was pretty well off owning a construction business, and he would take everyone out to a steakhouse, and it felt like The Biggest Deal getting a big slab of medium rare beef so big it would cover the entire plate and you'd get another plate with all your sides. Like, this is how kid me knew you made it in life, being able to buy other ppl huge plates of prime rib. I still feel like prime rib is pretty fancy I guess. I don't get it often, but every few years I'll get dressed up in my nice denim and flannel and have a couple ice cold martinis and a slab of cow and go home and pass the gently caress out.
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Jun 20, 2022 01:01
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Shooting Blanks posted:This. Especially the buffet at Pizza Hut or Double Dave's (local chain). Cici's Pizza was our pizza buffet of choice.
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Jun 20, 2022 01:28
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AngryRobotsInc posted:Cici's Pizza was our pizza buffet of choice. All you can eat for only $2.99 
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Jun 20, 2022 02:49
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My family was solidly middle class, but Lunchables was like, out of this world luxury to me. I’d see some of the kids in my class with them instead of homemade sandwiches and think they must be millionaires.
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Jun 20, 2022 03:30
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The first time I went to a Teppanyaki place, because oh my god it was like the coolest thing ever, they are giving us a little show while we eat! And because we never went back because my brother accidently swallowed a chopstick (there was a little bridge with water installation near the entrance and he ran over it with one is his mouth and fell) so I always had this thing in my head that this one place was the fanciest thing ever. This also makes me think of the one time I went to Medieval Times (Dinner and Tournament, for the first time. I had been sick for a whole week with Coxsackievirus and it was first real meal I had that I didn't throw up, so it tasted extra good.
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Jun 20, 2022 03:41
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Fresh Choice was always seen by young me as the best of places, similar to a lot of folks here I was overawed by it being a buffet, the choices seemed endless, and they had booths which seemed so fancy to me. Looking back I don't think it'd hold up, but man it felt so nice as a kid.
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Jun 20, 2022 04:14
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My dad really, really liked Outback, and so we would go to Outback every year for his birthday. I assumed it had to be the most elegant place on earth because my dad was an elegant guy and he certainly seemed to enjoy it. My brother looked up to my dad to a tremendous degree and so once he was old enough to call the shots on his own birthday he'd also opt, inevitably, for Outback. So twice a year we'd head out, I'd get impressed by the long line of people, I'd be awed by the little electronic buzzer they'd give you when you put your name in. My god, what could be finer. Unbeknownst to me as a little kid he'd also go out separately with my mom to a nice French restaurant downtown that they both loved and leave us with a babysitter, but I was young and dumb and didn't really bother to wonder where my parents went when we had a babysitter. I eventually went to this French restaurant, and it ruled, but I understand why they left us at home. My dad died a few months ago and his funeral was the first time in awhile that my brother and I were both back in our hometown at the same time. The Outback we used to go to had since closed down, but we picked up a bloomin' onion for lunch one day. Honestly it really hit the spot. Our little town also got its first Thai place when I was in high-school and I felt very worldly taking dates there, even when I pronounced "Thai" with a soft "th."
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Jun 20, 2022 08:09
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Italian place opened up and they would serve the bread with oil and vinegar and the waiter would ask your opinion about vinegar and pepper in your oil, like that was such a common thing that any random patron would have preferences about in a town of 50k in Indiana. Blew my goddamn mind, my dad's too honestly, he was already obsessed with having sourdough baguette on the table with any meal it wasn't weird to have it with, but now we had dipping oil.
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Jun 20, 2022 08:22
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Definitely American Chinese. There was a specific restaurant, downtown in the nearest city. Old, old place, had been in business 80 years when I was a kid, still decorated up like the 1940's. Owner was a wonderful lady who was the fifth generation running the place, my Dad knew her. Great food, but looking back it was just the Americanized Chinese staples and not terribly expensive, just good atmosphere and the excitement of being in the 'city' for a kid who spent most of his time out where they didn't have paved roads.  I was really sad when they shut down about 10 years ago after a century, but I understood. She was getting older and none of her kids wanted to run the place. New owners kept the atmosphere but turned it into a tiki bar that's still drat good. Edit: looked it up, 1907-2008. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 10:53
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It was Little Caesar's for me as well. Back in the late 80s, the small town I lived in had a largish one in a strip mall with plenty of sit-down space and an extra room for banquets, birthday parties and such. I thought it was fancy as hell at the time (and for Little Caesar's I guess it was) and was surprised when they shut down in 1990 or so. Of course, there was also the time years later when I experienced the exact opposite. My high school band went to march at Disney World and took a day to visit Epcot. I decided to have my lunch at Le Chefs de France, knowing nothing about the place and thinking it would be tourist-trappy like much of what I had already seen, but hey, might as well check it out.
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Jun 20, 2022 15:16
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Jun 20, 2022 21:56
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Jun 20, 2022 21:59
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Growing up in rural Devon any kind of takeaway/fast food was a 'treat' type thing; nearest Mcdonalds or KFC was 15 miles away, that sort of thing. I don't think I had a Domino's/Pizza Hut type pizza til I was like, 20. My little town had two Chineses, who did the obligatory one is always poo poo but they would take turns every couple years to become The Bad One. Even now, living in a city (OK, still a rural one), it seems weird that people get Mcdonalds or whatnot regularly: it doesn't cross my mind that I could have it for lunch if I wanted. Not remotely in a snobby way, just doesn't occur to me.
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Jun 20, 2022 22:02
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This is still fancy. I bought one for pudding the other day, and both my kids (who are mega urbane sophisticated louche London children who scoff at foods I thought were the dernier cri) let out audible “ooooooooooooh” sounds
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Jun 20, 2022 22:21
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Oh gods, if we can also mention store bought food, Ferrero Rocher is up there. With this drug store chocolate you are really spoiling uzzz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P-nZZkQqTc
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Jun 21, 2022 01:32
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I dunno if this is like the opposite thing from the thread title but I grew up middle class and pretty much 100% of the contents of my lunches at school were handmade sandwiches and cut celery/carrots etc etc. What I actually pined for was all the stuff my friends had for lunch which my parents would turn their nose up at - the lunchables someone else mentioned for example, chips, or anything else that would actually come in a store bought container. Those crackers + peanut butter with the red stick to spread it, animal crackers, all that kind of thing were insanely desirable to me and I never ever got it. Same thing with instant noodles, kraft dinner, etc that I'd get at friend's houses that was considered idiot food for lazy people by my parents.
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Jun 21, 2022 02:43
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Our family special treat was Sizzlers. Now I know it was common for Korean Americans.
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Jun 21, 2022 05:10
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We were definitely not able to dine out at a restaurant more than once a year or so when I was a kid. (Lunch at the Italian social club on Sundays was a whole other thing. Can't have cost that much, food was amazing.) The one restaurant we went to was the Calabrisella, which, surprise, was also Italian. It was a real checked tablecloth, chianti bottle vase place. With fishing nets and glass floats hung around the ceiling. I thought it was so drat fancy. The food was incredible and I realize I was super fortunate that we didn't really have any chain restaurants around. Now, when the Sizzler arrived in town, that immediately rocketed up the social scale as THE place to host a party. I could never afford to order any of the main courses, but the salad bar was nice.
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Jun 21, 2022 21:59
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When I was real young, Souplantation. I remember my grandparents took us to Maggianos when I was 9 or 10 after a dance recital and the oil/vinegar absolutely confounded me lol. We didn't eat out much, it was a huge treat to get McDonalds or Taco Bell.
Gorman Thomas fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Jun 22, 2022 |
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Jun 22, 2022 06:32
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Not so much about food, but I was fascinated as a child by restaurants with unusual technology. Back in the 80s there was a (barbecue? burger?) restaurant called "Round the Corner" which had some sort of phones or intercoms set up at the booths, so you'd go and sit down at a table, look at the menu, and then you'd use the phone to call in your order. And there was a red light on top of the phone that would light up and buzz when they called you to tell you your order was ready. Common technology in a lot of places these days for counter orders (or "go wander around and we'll buzz you when your table is ready" places) but it was SUPER exciting as an 80s kid. Equally fascinating, though less obscure, was the kind of restaurants that had little jukeboxes for each booth. I think it was Mama's Italian Kitchen in Norfolk I'm specifically remembering (long gone). I'd just sit there fascinatedly turning the knobs to let the song lists cycle through. I didn't have money to play music and it was all too oldie for me anyway but I loved how fancy it felt.
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Jun 27, 2022 03:05
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Oh hell yeah. And when the buzzers came on the scene I always called dibs on holding those 
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Jun 27, 2022 04:04
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Family dinners at the Pizza Hut back in the 80s. Mom and dad guzzling pitchers of beer, real pizza served to your table, arcade games, silverware and a strange brick building unlike any other pizza shop. Good stuff and no joke I'd give anything to relive that memory. These days they're just frozen pizza served from a closet sized hole in a dying strip mall.
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Jun 29, 2022 21:35
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I thought Pot 'o Gold chocolates were fancy-pants, having only really seen them on TV. I thought my parents were being cheap by buying the huge bricks of Superstore Brand chocolate... until I grew up and realized that Pot 'o Gold chocolates were one step up from sidewalk chalk.
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Jun 29, 2022 22:58
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Candied almonds. They were the height of sophistication.
therattle fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Jun 30, 2022 |
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Jun 30, 2022 00:10
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Anywhere with a salad bar and ice cream machine. The opening of a Jason’s Deli in town was a huge day for me.
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Jun 30, 2022 20:26
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Scientastic posted:When I was a kid, we went to a Chinese restaurant that had orange sorbet for dessert. Thank you for this! I have the ultimate combination of:
So I hollowed out some oranges and made the sorbet. I think he'll love it
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Jun 30, 2022 22:02
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Democratic Pirate posted:Anywhere with a salad bar and ice cream machine. Same for us growing up. This is "fancy" for a lot of 80s/90s middle class American kids I think.
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Jul 1, 2022 02:24
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therattle posted:Candied almonds. They were the height of sophistication. Still a top-tier snack!
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Jul 1, 2022 14:10
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Candied almonds were a thing we only got at Italian weddings in Bomboniere. Deep fried icecream The Japanese places that flicked food at you Billy Ray Blowjob fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Jul 3, 2022 |
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Jul 3, 2022 06:13
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