I’m tired of all y’all saying “another one bites the dust,” or “😢,” or “I have so many memories here…” when one of your local neighborhood restaurants posts their closure announcement. Thank you for your kind words, but where the fuck were you? Haven’t seen you in over a year.
If you’re even fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood walkable to local restaurants, we understand that you feel connected to them. They’re an added value to your property, and it makes you look cool to recommend a nice place to out-of-towners. But you need to show the fuck up.
We’re not going to wipe your emoji tears. There are real tears shed by real humans who are loosing their jobs, small business owners who have lost literally everything to create spaces for you to share meals and build community. So take off your Snuggie and Go. Support. Local. Restaurants.
As an industry, we understand money is tight. But there is happy hour. There is sharing posts on your IG stories. For the love of god, step up to the plate, and if you do and your fav place still closes, THEN you’re allowed to cry in your castles.
Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous and we’ll illustrate it! Send your unsigned rant, love letter, confession, or accusation to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and the guilty.
Ditto for retail.
Sorry, but the reality is its very hard to afford eating out on a regular basis anymore. It’s not a question of wanting to support local eateries, it’s that I have only so much to spend.
Take it up with all the billionaire-run local tech companies that are laying off thousands. We’re broke right now.
I am also sad-face-emoji that my plants all died.
Now I’ll never get the chance to water them!
This is like when I go to the Improv in LA and the struggling opening comedian tells the non-laughing crowd, “hey, that joke killed last night, so it must be you guys.” Yes, these terrible comedians actually blame the crowd for their shit jokes not being funny.
Your failed restaurant probably wasn’t that good. Sorry.
Not always the case, of course. There are times when the landlord fucks you over or something, sure. But then just move to a different location. Or maybe try a different business. There is no shortage of restaurants in this town. What percentage of our shrinking incomes do you expect us to spend on the completely unnecessary luxury of eating out?
Folks could also stop giving money to our tech overlords (via DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc.), actually go to these restaurants who are getting screwed to fund billionaires.
Another expert on how other people should spend their money.
Meh, lots of local restaurants are booked out for weeks, or even months. Some of those restaurants have been operating for decades. If your restaurant is not as popular, that’s not the customer’s fault.
@9: “Meh, lots of local restaurants are booked out for weeks, or even months.”
How many of the 2000+ restaurants in Seattle are booked out for weeks or months?
“lots” seems like an exaggeration.
Hi, it’s me again. Soooo… here’s the thing. I have never seen a restaurant that closed because the customers were bad, it’s always been because, the food was terrible, or the service was terrible, or they were in a bad location. If you are blaming the customers for your failure, that kind of shows what the root cause of the problem was. You are idiots. Look, if people stop coming to your crappy restaurant, it’s because you have a crappy restaurant. I get it, that’s touch love, but I am actually doing you a big favor. If you are dumb enough to try again, maybe try this idea… serve good food, with good service, in a nice place. It’s not all that complicated. If your place sucks, I go down the street. It’s kind of simple. Stop crying and blaming others for you incompetence.
The restaurant business has always been cuthroat, with tiny profit margins, but especially in a town where rents are out of control.
I saw this in the hotel business years ago. There was a time where every respectable hotel prided themselves on having a fine dining restaurant, a “coffee shop”, a cocktail lounge, and oftentimes a disco or showroom (live music and dinner service). The beancounters who run hotels these days didn’t like the loss leaders, and didn’t want to deal with people who were not guests. They slashed everything but banquets and maybe room service. Every possible square foot of public space had to be revenue-generating. The most egregious example of this is the sad state of the Fairmont Olympic, which now resembles a smaller version of the Snoqualmie Casino.
I grew up here, 8 years ago I went vegan. The situation is getting better for us despicable vegans but for the most part, Seattle was woefully behind other places I would go in terms of just even having a vegan option and marking it on the menu.
Then I was priced out into the burbs. I noticed places going out of business that I loved, high rents and new customers who could afford the neighborhoods they were in, who had no nostalgia for these joints. And the older I get the less I want to drive ~30 minutes to support somewhere I used to go 15, 20 years ago. I’d prefer to support the places in my part of town because to me, that’s the future.
Anyway, times change, people adjust. As someone else said, the margins have always been slim in that business. Best of luck to everyone trying to make it out there, it seems rough.
I’d recommend anyone starting a restaurant to search out outlying neighborhoods and towns with more reasonable rents (maybe impossible, I suppose). But the people who moved out here want good restaurants! Perhaps it’s not the golden goose of the Seattle technorati. But it’s something.
Your Favorite Quasi-Democracy Wouldn’t Have to End If You Actually Supported It on a Regular Basis.
@14 — “The most egregious example of this is the sad state of the Fairmont Olympic, which now resembles a smaller version of the Snoqualmie Casino.”
That’s an understatement! I had not been in there for some years and went last month. My eyes truly popped. What used to be a quiet, elegant lobby was now stuffed with seating areas and people drinking cocktails/whatever. It was really packed. The resturant was also very busy. We had an OK dinner there…service was fine, food was OK. Probably not going back to eat but do want to check out the Founders Bar “speakeasy” because they have some interesting vintage scotch pours. But yeah, they killed any sense of elegance that lobby ever once had.
Right. It must be ME, and not you.
Got it there, Gripey McGripe-ster.
Nothing to do w/ landlords jacking
rent 300%, or staff retention issues.
I go out, often. I tip like I’m looking
for a date. I thoroughly appreciate
the food industry, and individuals
that provide it, directly to my table.
Please, DO grow up, sometime(?).
You may be going to seed too early.
Right. It must be ME, and not you.
Got it there, Gripey McGripe-ster.
Nothing to do w/ landlords jacking
rent 300%, or staff retention issues.
I go out, often. I tip like I’m looking
for a date. I thoroughly appreciate
the food industry, and individuals
that provide it, directly to my table.
Please, DO grow up, sometime(?).
You may be going to seed too early.
No more Taco Tuesdays for us, or
the Tequila specials with discount
movie Night at the Admiral. Sucks.
Totally sucks. Not just for patrons.
I totally get it.
Jubilation dear, as you may know, I worked at the Four Seasons Olympic for almost ten years, so this is personal to me. It looks like Fairmont hotels hired a summer intern to do the remodel.
Among the atrocities…..
They donated the original lobby chandeliers to the UW for some inexplicable reason, for UW owns the land that the hotel sits on.
Moved the Georgian Room chandeliers to the Spanish Foyer, where they look ridiculous (and installed the most godawful movie theatre carpeting to clash with them).
*Put mirrors on the ceiling of the Georgian Room and renamed it “George.” (where I had the worst and most expensive steak of my entire life. Lukewarm and mostly gristle)
*Painted the paneling in the motor entrance black.
*Sold the original Spanish Foyer chandeliers to a salvage place in SODO (which dropped one of them, essentially destroying it)
The theme is supposed to be “Great Gatsby-ish”, which just backs up my theory that they paid a summer internt to oversee this abortion.
Dreadful. Simply dreadful.
@11 YES. I am so sick of tipping on the tax becoming the norm. That is bullshit! Tip on the pre-tax amount!!!