I'm pretty sure that Wal Mart (the poster) was being sarcastic.

I'm pretty sure too. :-)

You are right about some local restaurants being godawful. These are the places my husband's family seem to like that I totally dread. Maybe their choices in restaurants is why he doesn't want to hang out with them?? (maybe that's another blog...hehe).

Then there are the times when I take my 80 yr old grandmother to the dr's and she wants to take me out to breakfast or lunch afterward. I would rather go home and eat a ham sandwich then go to where she wants to go. She usually chooses Friendly's. Not wanting to hurt her feelings I suck it up and go and hate that my clothes smell SOO bad after I leave that place!

I do like mom and pop places and even worked in a mom and pop place during high school and college, but they tend to be more expensive. I see commercials for small independant appliance stores and I wonder why people just don't go to Best Buy? My parents will go to the small appliance store. Is it just a generation thing? I just know I wanna get in and get the hell out as soon as possible!

There was an article in Slate recently about the Starbucks effect -- it definitely makes me think that a coffee shop would be a good business to start -- such high markup on your main product!

Is it just a generation thing?

I don't think so. I'm (ahem) young-ish and I would sooner go to the local Mom and Pop than run to the WalMart etc. The very same reason why we tend to visit local establishments is the very same reason why I try to patronize my local merchants: service. Generally speaking, I get better service from the local Mom and Pop than the Big Box retailer. Because Mom and Pop KNOW they can't offer the same for less, but they can offer it better, with a smile and even some lagniappes thrown in every now and then. Chain restaurants are the same way. Sure there is consistency in the food (supposedly) and there certainly is consistency in the young adult wait staff as well. And maybe that is why a lot of us try to avoid them as well, food aside.

As for WalMart, I don't shop there at all, but that's for a whole host of other reason which I am sure others have written books about. If not, I could. I cringe that there is a new Super WalMart opening up in my county in the near future.

Having lived in Podunk, Iowa (a.k.a. Des Moines) for a few years, I can safely say that Midwestern burg had the most consistently decent, competently prepared good food. Between lunch and dinner and Sunday brunches, I dined out at least 5 times a week for two and a half years. During that time, I had 10 so-so meals and 4 gawd-awful meals. 3 of those gawd-awful meals came from Applebee's on the south side of town. Ugh.

lagniappes? That's got to be the vocabulary builder of the day. Well done.

My in-laws live in western Maryland very close to a super Wal-Mart, and they swear that it's done great things for the community. They donate lots of money to local charities and have created loads of jobs in an area that sorely needed them. Now, I freely admit that since I've only been visiting the area for a few years, I haven't seen a before-and-after effect with regards to competing independent retailers, but from what little I do know it does seem to have made a positive impact on this particular community.

That being said, I still feel dirty on the rare occasion I need to pick something up there during a visit. It's hard to ignore nationwide reports of employee mistreatment, particularly of women, and lack of decent benefits. And for that reason, I never shop at any of the Wal-Marts around here. It's harder to stick to my guns out west when there isn't a decent alternative.

Chains and creative mom-and-pop places CAN peacefully coexist. Howard County is a good example. We've got pretty much every chain under the sun...but we also have some excellent privately-owned places.

It's a competitive marketplace, and there's room for both styles. Let the consumer decide.

Xando in Charles Village closed shortly after the first (of 2) Starbucks showed up in the neighborhood. All current Wal-mart shoppers (even if it's only occasionally) should check out the documentary "The High Cost of Low Prices." I wasn't big on the place to begin with, but will never go there again after having seen this film.

I'd like to focus on the restaurants, though, because most readers of this blog probably understand what Wal-Mart does to the competition. They are selling the same tube of toothpaste or whatever at a lower price, which isn't necessarily true of chain restaurants. Your point about XandO is well taken.

There's an interesting article in Baltimore's Style magazine about the difference between a mom&pop hardware store and Home Depot... It is that the local hardware store will sell you the things to make home repairs, while HD is more interested in having you buy from scratch.

The local store will sell you nine cents worth of nails while HD will make you buy a box of 100. Local will sell the quirky things like radiator keys that are essential to Baltimore's mostly older housing stock, while the HD will help you install baseboard heating.

Look where some of the m&p hardware stores are... Bolton Hill, Roland Park, Hampden and you'll see the point.

I'm not sure that Wal-Mart meant the demise of mom and pop stores. Wal-Mart really pushed the Ames, Kmarts, Woolworths, Jamesway and Murphy's, etc... out.

I would also say the chain restaurants have largely pushed other chain restaurants out. The older chains of Ponderosa, Bonanza, Rustler, White Coffee Pot, etc... were pushed out by the Ruby Tuesdays, Fridays, Outbacks, etc...

What makes the restaurant comparision more difficult than the department store comparison is the unbelievable growth in dining out we have witnessed. Demand has grown, so while the chains may have a bigger piece of the pie, the mom and pop places do not necessarily have a smaller slice.

Excellent points.

I shop Walmart. Honestly I can't afford not to shop there. I feel horrible that they have chased a lot of the mom and pop stores out of business. I can't recall the town but was traveling in West Virginia a few years back. I was told to hit the Super Walmart before proceeding to the ski lodge to stock up. The former main street of the town was nothing but closed businesses; everything from hardware shops to key cutters. That's horrible. These super centers are a boon and a curse at the same time.

I know you said no restaurants... but how about bakeries? When a Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts opened in the area surrounding my neighborhood it all but shuttered a local bakery that had been around for decades. I love the variety I can get at DD, but always stop at the local for their marshmallow donuts... no chain has ever been able to produce a good, non-sugary marshmallow donut.

Wait. Wait. I didn't say no restaurants. Or if I did I didn't mean to.

Marshmallow donut? What is this donut you are speaking of? It sounds delicious! Where do I get one?

Wal-Mart (not to mention the increasing divide in personal wealth), is just a reflection of where America has been destined to go all along since the advent of the suburbs and the interstates. I read recently that we will never give up our cars, hence the acres of parking (plus parking garages) and the demise of walking - *sigh*.... What's the point of a main street especially in a small town when its much more convenient to drive to a Super Wal-Mart and get tons more (emphasis on quantity not quality) for less? Baltimore, and other similar abandoned cities still have a long way to go in bringing back real main street life - there has to be a significant cultural revolution to bring back fantasies of more places like Matrick's and mom & pop stores.

Rebecca, Woodlea Bakery on Belair Rd makes great marshmallow donuts. Look em up: www.woodleabakery.com! Yum!

Doesn't Keller's bakery in Linthicum also do a marshmallow doughnut? Or are the rumors that they've closed true? That would be a truly sad thing for doughnutphiles everywhere.

Keller's is NOT closed. And that's the bakery I was discussing. There was quite a hullabaloo in the community newsletter about their potentially losing their customers to "big donut franchises".

Come. buy some donuts, keep local business IN business!

Wow, marshmallow donuts. I haven't had those since I was a kid...

I'm having a bit of a disconnect here. What actually constitutes a "bad" chain restaurant? And I'm disconnected with your notion that you think it's boring to see the same restaurants everywhere you go, yet you encourage this level of proliferation by continually supporting these chains through print reviews and blog discussions.

Even one print review displaces the potential for a deserving local restaurant to enjoy the exposure of being featured in Baltimore's ONLY paper of record. It's the local joints that need your recognition and review, not the new interstate chain coming to town.

Chains are the comfort food for the unimaginative - and believe me, even I've been unimaginative from time to time. Chains are safe and familiar - and well they should be since their food is typically prepared in a corporate commissary or manufacturing plant to ensure uniform consistency nationwide.

Sad to say though that many local joints are not much better - especially those who rely heavily on the major foodservice distributors like Sysco and US Foodservice for their ingredients, where they can order just about any menu item, par cooked, breaded, portioned and frozen. Just toss in the over or fryer and you're good to go.

Where do you draw the line (and I don't mean this as a combatative question)? Is Lebanese Taverna worthy of a review? Paolo's? Donna's? Clyde's? Prime Rib? First Watch? Roy's in Harbor East? CPK?

Also, even if deserving local places need my recognition, should that be a consideration for me as a reporter? Of course, it is to some degree; but I don't think it should be. My job is to inform my readers, not support local businesses. In the same way, I expect my colleagues on the news side to present a balanced picture of the news, no matter what their personal loyalties.

Finally, you ask what constitutes a bad chain restaurant. One that doesn't have good food, of course.

Misha, you don't need to ask me twice. I'm there. :)

I don't think there's any question that the big (casual dining) chains are taking large piles of money that would/could go into local establishments. And they do it through bigtime ad budgets funded through cost-cutting on labor and mass produced menu ingredients.

This impacts not only local dining establishments, but the whole local supply chain. Where local chefs are much more likely to be going to local markets to buy local foods from local suppliers, the big chains are trucking it in from their central supply distribution centers.

Sure. You can have your conistency, even a modicum of innovation and quality in your Podunk Iowas. But just don't kid yourselves about the impact of big chains on the local dining economy.

Taget is soooo on target here...

Case in point - ask the owner of our beloved local non-chain Pete's Grill where he gets his bacon and why, and you will get a long, very passionate answer. He only gets it from one place, which is, for all relevant purposes, local.

The result - the best bacon in charm city, perhaps in the entire U.S. You don't get that kind of bacon at Denny's or on your burger at any sit-down chain. And it doesn't cost any more, even though it probably should.

Having worked at several local national chain places, I will never eat at any of them again, for many reasons, but here is one of the many, absent the gross food safety issues:

The pre-fab food isn't always bad, but it's bad for you, and not fresh.

Look up the sodium content in that stuff (if they are even willing to disclose it - there was a scandal a few years back because Quiznos didn't want people to know how much sodium was in those lethal toasty sandwiches). Sodium seems to make anything taste good. But it's the silent killer people!

The chain TTT, which now seems fait accompli, should come with a warning and disclaimer.

Where do you draw the line (and I don't mean this as a combatative question)?

No worries, I'm not interpreting it as combatative.

Is Lebanese Taverna worthy of a review?

Good to start off with a locally-based chain, but "No."

Paolo's?

No.

Donna's?

Nada.

Clyde's?

Nyet.

Prime Rib?

Iie.

First Watch?

Non.

Roy's in Harbor East?

A'ole.

CPK?

No, dude.

Also, even if deserving local places need my recognition, should that be a consideration for me as a reporter?

Absolutely.

But more importantly, you're supposedly THE food reviewer/critic/reporter for our fair city. You're the Paper of Record. You are to Baltimore what Frank Bruni is to the rest of the world. Your reviews should never be light, fluff pieces designed to prop a national chain, they should be insightful, informative and most importantly, a guide for the readership to new and delicious places. Places that don't have a national ad budget for television spots.

In fact, I would have hoped that your editors demanded this kind of writing. Writing that looked within our city for the next great spot - celebrating (or chastizing) the restaurants and chefs that serve us.

Of course, it is to some degree; but I don't think it should be. My job is to inform my readers, not support local businesses.

It's more than supporting "local businesses", it's supporting the people - it's supporting the very same people that support you.

We're not talking about fluff pieces on the local restaurant scene. We're talking about real understanding and insight. We're talking about you at the top of your game.

It's time to get serious, otherwise, we might as well expect more of the crappy news wire and Chicago-based reporting that so dominates what was once a nationally recognized daily.

In the same way, I expect my colleagues on the news side to present a balanced picture of the news, no matter what their personal loyalties.

Again, it's not about local restaurant fluff. It's about discovering the local places so that the readership can try something new and different.

Something other than rethermalized food at the national chains.

Finally, you ask what constitutes a bad chain restaurant. One that doesn't have good food, of course.

I'm hard-pressed then to believe that there are any "good" national chains.

One thing to remember is that even local restaurants are apt to use the same basic supplier. I know of several quaint local places that basically use sysco for everything, right down to the sauces and dressings.

While the issue of local ownership is important and I always prefer to support local over chain establishments, that doesn't mean that I'm not getting basically the same mass-produced, over-processed, flavor-enhanced, factory-farmed junk that I would at a chain.

No doubt about that CharmCity - I fully agree with you.

Which is even more reason we need our citys' food critic to get down in the trenches of our local restaurants and hit 'em when they're using poor ingredients and lazy technique. Which means she's got to be at the top of her game.

Then all of us benefit. The lesser restaurants will hopefully review their methods and kick it up a few notches and we'll get better places to eat.

Jay C- merci! You can buy fresh, local, and better than Prefab Food O'Rama, and our food critic can and should find the places doing the good stuff- I bet they're out there if you look hard enough!

If I'm by Woodlea Bakery, why on earth would I go to (insert name of RR-advertised chain of donuts and coffee) another place; I know that the stuff at Woodlea is fresh and tastes better. If I want a sandwich, I'll trust the guy on Rt. 40 and his pit beef, I KNOW that stuff is good, it's fresh, and tastes better than some chain's "meat product". Give me the local operator who isn't trying to be everything to everyone.

I don't mean to beat a horse down (okay, maybe I do), but as I was perusing the site this morning I noticed a curious thing:

As of this writing, there are only three comments to the Martick's post.

And as I scan the topics, I notice the Dogwood post has only four comments.

Conversely:

Next Top Ten: Chains? - 74
Safe Sushi - 15
We Love Burgers...duh - 33
Wal Mart vs Ruby Tuesday - 26
Top Ten Mid-Scale Restaurant Chains - 68

If these statistics aren't enough to demonstrate that the readership needs greater awareness and exposure to the local joints that are making thoughtful and delicious food - I don't know what will.

I don't know if one can make the argument that the stats bear out the point that more needs to be done to expose local joints to the people. Maybe, the people don't want to be exposed. Maybe the people like their chains.

I say this not because I like chains. I love local places. Other than this blog, my favorite food website is Roadfood.com. Nevertheless, I also recognize that I can not force my likes on others, regardless of how misguided they may be.

Take a look at any election, and what will the losing candidate say. You can count on something about how we failed to get our message out. Maybe that is true, but maybe the people rejected the message. Everything is not decided by marketing and PR.

Jay C said:

As of this writing, there are only three comments to the Martick's post.

and:

If these statistics aren't enough to demonstrate that the readership needs greater awareness and exposure to the local joints that are making thoughtful and delicious food - I don't know what will

None of the three comments were from Jay C. What does that demonstrate about his awareness? :-)

RCK- I wish you were wrong...I want you to be wrong. But there's a lot of truth in your comment.

Unfortunately, in one subject, a lot of wistful comments about everyone's favourite place having gone away (all of which, I'm guessing, were local non-chains; I haven't lived here that long), meanwhile we have a topic about chains with a ton of comments extolling the virtues of Cheesecake Factory, McItalian, and the like. Make of that what you will.

What I make of it is that a lot of people have a lot of different tastes, and they're all welcome on this blog. Just because the Cheesecake Factory isn't one of my favorites, I still appreciate the fact that Donny B. spoke up about what he liked.

Hal-
No doubt about it, I've never been to Martick's. I've heard rumors about it, but have never been.

Meanwhile, I'm being inundated with calls for more chain reviews, cries about how "good" the chains are, how they've "never had a bad meal" at a chain.

All this noise about the chains and little places like Martick's get lost in the mix.

More reasons why the food critic for the paper of record needs to pull her focus away from the chains (of any sort) and seek out the small and delicious in our city. So charlatans like me can have a new place to check out.

I'm not fond of the Cheesecake Factory, but obviously some people are.

But, one of the really enjoyable things about this blog is the broad array of opinions on foods, restaurants, songs about food, etc. I'd hate to see a really concerted effort to quite those voices that may have different tastes.

And remember, this is a blog. Every post is not and shouldn't have to be a formal critique. Are we saying that Elizabeth can't have any fun with this?

Anyway, just a few thoughts...

I suspect Elizabeth is having a LOT of fun with this, and she knows perfectly well what she is doing when she tosses out a topic such as chains or R. Ray. But at some point she may weary of checking all of our posts. (Hope not!)

Jay C., you can go to Martick's any time you want. You don't have to wait for "the food critic for the paper of record" to tell you it's okay. :-)

Jay C, as you have probably surmissed by now, we are pretty protective of our Lady Elizabeth. That does not mean that we are not willing to disagree with her, but we pretty much follow rule number 2 when we state our disagreements. The beauty of this blog is that there are as many topics that are just silly as there are topics that are seriously foodie-centered. But the reason that many of us return to this site is that we are just having fun. And learning some stuff along the way. Just reading OMG's comments should earn us Continuing Education Credits.

Now, i have an almost empty nest and my husband and I tend to eat out four or five days a week. We cannot afford to spend forty or fifty dollars a night for dinner. So, we often patronize diners, cafeterias, chains and inexpensive locally owned restaurants. At least once a week, if we are in the mood, we treat ourselves to a 'good' place.

Heck, I can go to Macaroni Grill, order a side of Mushroom Risoto and a salad and walk out for five bucks. Is it the best Risoto I have ever had? Nope. But is it the worse? Again, no. The worse was prepared in my own kitchen.

All of this is to say, bear with us. We will surely return to a topic that you will enjoy. Given time we always do.

Applause for Regina for deftly summing up what keeps drawing us back (several times a day for most of us). Now, Regina, how about a name makeover?
If Janet can blossom as Rosebud, and OMG is constantly evolving, surely you can give this some thought!

Hal-
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind!

Regina-
I have absolutely no problem with people, such as yourselves, who go out four or five nights a week and choose to eat economically. That's why the chains are there.

Does that mean you need to read about these cheap chains in the daily paper of record?

Perhaps you'd enjoy a cheap place to eat that you haven't heard about before - a place that the local food critic discovered and shared with her readership that's outside of the chain system. That's what I'm talking about.

Regina - that was so very well put!