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Posted

 

On 4/24/2025 at 12:03 PM, Ghost of LL said:

 

But that raises a bigger issue: food in small or medium-sized Texas towns sucks ass.  Perhaps there was a time when there were restaurants in small towns that used fresh ingredients that were locally sourced in traditional recipes to come up with some fantastic shit.  But those days are in the past.  Now, it's much cheaper/easier to used canned or frozen ingredients, and everyone in small-town restaurants does.  And absolutely none of the recipes are any good when you use inferior ingredients.  

I guarantee that’s better for their business in almost every way. The thing about them, especially depending on whether the town receives a lot of through traffic, is that almost all of their customers are locals. The smaller the town, the older that clientele is likely to be. So, the food needs to be cheap for a couple reasons. Older folks and those living in small towns generally have lower incomes and are less prone to spend it on finer dining. To ensure the restaurant is regularly filling up, they need those locals to be coming several days a week. If the food costs much more than it costs to eat at home, the locals will just eat at home. Really, they’re making the same exact food their customers would make at home and just charging  a bit extra to save them the hassle of cooking for themselves. Additionally, someone that’s going to eat at the same place multiple days a week is going to want absolute consistency. That’s much easier to do with cheap, processed food than it is with farm to table. Point being, while small town folks may want better options locally, they won’t actually support them enough for those places to survive. Nobody is driving from Austin to Liberty Hill for a good meal that they could get here for a few more dollars. 

Even in the places with a lot of through traffic, it’s harder for the more expensive places. Let’s say I’m driving through some random town and want to stop for a bite. I see two options, one where the parking lot is nearly full and one where there’s only a few cars. I’m more likely to pick the busy one on the assumption that it’s better. But it might not be. It might just be the cheaper one that everybody goes to several days a week rather than the good restaurant they only splurge at once a month.

Wow. What a weird rant I just went on. 

Posted
On 4/24/2025 at 1:47 PM, Bill Brasky said:

food margins have been pretty thin for the past 4-5 years, so most places raised the price of tea/fountain drinks to compensate.   while many will look at the price of food on the menu very few people look at the tea/fountain drink prices and just order whatever reflexively 

This has been true forever. Excluding alcohol, which everyone knows has a huge markup, cokes, tea, coffee, etc, go a long way towards profitability. 20+ years ago, I believe the cost of what an average diner would drink was 1.5 cents worth of product/labor. And you were charged $1 or $2 dollars for it. 
 

Jesus. I need to get off this thread.

Posted (edited)
On 4/24/2025 at 2:19 PM, BurntOrange&White said:

The old PIzza Hut in Navasota is now a funeral home.

Makes sense. It came with the ovens already.

Damnit. Should’ve known I would’ve been beaten to the punch on that one.

Edited by SquishMitten
Posted
11 minutes ago, utee94 said:

I grew up loathing green beans, all we ever had was canned.  

Then one time when I was maybe around ten years old, for some fancy lunch we were having, my mom made some fresh.  I didn't want to try them but my folks made me.  I took a tiny bite, then took another, and discovered how much I loved them.  Turns out green beans didn't have to be a salty mushy disgusting mess.  They could be bright and crisp and flavorful.  

From then on, I'd always ask my mom for fresh green beans, and she taught me how to snap and string them.  Turns out that she hated doing that part, which is why she always used canned, but I didn't mind it at all.  I'd just sit at the kitchen counter snapping, while she went on about preparing other parts of the meal.  It's one of the early ways I began learning how to cook for, and take care of, myself.

Now I love making fresh green beans for my own family.  And of course, my kids don't like them-- they actually prefer canned! :)

 

I didn't know you had to string green beans.  I've only done it for snow peas.  

Posted
12 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

I didn't know you had to string green beans.  I've only done it for snow peas.  

Yup.  Some have longer strings than others. I've never really known why until I just looked it up and apparently it's related to the maturity of the bean itself.

And apparently there are some modern stringless varieties that have been bred, as well. 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:

 

I guarantee that’s better for their business in almost every way. The thing about them, especially depending on whether the town receives a lot of through traffic, is that almost all of their customers are locals. The smaller the town, the older that clientele is likely to be. So, the food needs to be cheap for a couple reasons. Older folks and those living in small towns generally have lower incomes and are less prone to spend it on finer dining. To ensure the restaurant is regularly filling up, they need those locals to be coming several days a week. If the food costs much more than it costs to eat at home, the locals will just eat at home. Really, they’re making the same exact food their customers would make at home and just charging  a bit extra to save them the hassle of cooking for themselves. Additionally, someone that’s going to eat at the same place multiple days a week is going to want absolute consistency. That’s much easier to do with cheap, processed food than it is with farm to table. Point being, while small town folks may want better options locally, they won’t actually support them enough for those places to survive. Nobody is driving from Austin to Liberty Hill for a good meal that they could get here for a few more dollars. 

Even in the places with a lot of through traffic, it’s harder for the more expensive places. Let’s say I’m driving through some random town and want to stop for a bite. I see two options, one where the parking lot is nearly full and one where there’s only a few cars. I’m more likely to pick the busy one on the assumption that it’s better. But it might not be. It might just be the cheaper one that everybody goes to several days a week rather than the good restaurant they only splurge at once a month.

Wow. What a weird rant I just went on. 

Oh, look--I understand the economics of it.  It's part of the death of rural America.  There's a great leaving-behind.  People who have the intelligence and wealth to leave have done so.  And that leaves behind a poorer, less intelligent, and generally older group.  And that's not a group that is clamoring for quality ingredients or preparation.

It's a big change for 30 years ago.  And its indicative of other societal changes that are reflected in a whole variety of things that you wouldn't necessarily think about if you're coming from urban or suburban Texas.

Posted
1 hour ago, gsoda3 said:

I didn't know you had to string green beans.  I've only done it for snow peas.  

Me either.  I've always just snapped the ends.

Posted
19 minutes ago, dcbc said:

Me either.  I've always just snapped the ends.

Maybe you're getting the stringless variety?  This lady says they have no flavor but it's the internet, so...

 

Posted
4 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Maybe you're getting the stringless variety?  This lady says they have no flavor but it's the internet, so...

 

No, usually I buy French green beans, which definitely are string beans.  I cook them like my mom did, which probably softens them up enough so I don't notice my mistake.  They are delicious in any event.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:

Makes sense. It came with the ovens already.

Damnit. Should’ve known I would’ve been beaten to the punch on that one.

Does it still have a Pac Man machine?

Posted
4 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

the worst luxo food my mom served: canned asparagus.  In the Depression it was an unobtainable luxury; she preferred it over fresh to the day she died. She made a casserole of it with LeSeuer peas and velveeta and cream of mushroom soup.  Dreadful by todays standards but everyone wanted the recipe 

Reminded me (kinda) of the pea salad my MIL makes every holiday that probably belongs on this thread. But I don't care- it's freaking awesome. Canned peas, pimentos, mayo, velveeta, and red onion. Hard boiled eggs sometimes I think. Love that stuff.

Posted
On 4/24/2025 at 12:03 PM, Ghost of LL said:

 

But that raises a bigger issue: food in small or medium-sized Texas towns sucks ass.  Perhaps there was a time when there were restaurants in small towns that used fresh ingredients that were locally sourced in traditional recipes to come up with some fantastic shit.  But those days are in the past.  Now, it's much cheaper/easier to used canned or frozen ingredients, and everyone in small-town restaurants does.  And absolutely none of the recipes are any good when you use inferior ingredients.  

 

Twelve years or so back an old Italian guy opened an authentic Italian restaurant in my small hometown. The food was really good when it first opened, everything made from scratch, used fresh herbs, ect.  Then people complained because they had to order a salad or side salad so they put in a salad bar.  The local hicks of course complained about the price and the taste because most of them had never had Italian food that wasn’t Olive Garden or ragu spaghetti.  So they pivoted to Sysco crap and it sucked and they closed down a year or two later.  He was probably tired of serving crap compared to how he started.   

Posted
On 4/24/2025 at 12:03 PM, Ghost of LL said:

Bill Brasky knows what's up.  This is a weird thing in Northeast Texas, and it's absolutely fucking awful.  I once had a hearing in Gilmer, and @Brisketexan told me to go to Gilmer's after my hearing and grab some hot links for lunch.  I think I finished two before deciding I'd prefer just to drive through a McDonald's off I-30 on my way back to Dallas.  I only just made it to I-30 before I had to have the most unholy out-both-ends experience of my life.  That poor McDonald's bathroom.

Fucking never again.*

But that raises a bigger issue: food in small or medium-sized Texas towns sucks ass.  Perhaps there was a time when there were restaurants in small towns that used fresh ingredients that were locally sourced in traditional recipes to come up with some fantastic shit.  But those days are in the past.  Now, it's much cheaper/easier to used canned or frozen ingredients, and everyone in small-town restaurants does.  And absolutely none of the recipes are any good when you use inferior ingredients.  

It has to be noted, too, that our palettes have changed.  Stuff that we thought was good 40 years ago now seems bland, uninteresting, and mundane.  It's even worse when you use canned green beans rather than fresh, or when you use pre-formed frozen hamburger patties.  But that's all you're going to get outside the major metropolitan areas.

 

 

* Speaking here both of eating Pittsburg hot links and of taking Brisket's advise on eateries.

I agree with you on small and medium sized town food. This place is an exception though : https://thecrazywaterhotel.com/eat-drink/ . They even have a good wine list.

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