On change – Pete Wells in NYT:

‘Many of the little routines of dining that we used to handle by talking to a person now happen on a screen. When we go to Shake Shack, we order and pay for our burger and frozen custard on a screen. In some places, we enter our names on the waiting list for tables on a screen. We scan QR codes so we can read the menu on a screen. Restaurants are turning into vending machines with chairs.
Before we walk in the door, we’ve usually made a reservation on a screen. You could still make reservations by phone in 2012. Many places were on OpenTable by then, but if you didn’t feel like using it or couldn’t find a time you wanted, you picked up the phone, and your call would usually be answered by a human. Pleasantries were exchanged. Polite phrases were used: Please. Thank you. I’m sorry. We look forward to seeing you.’

(…)

‘Restaurants that pride themselves on professionalism are becoming more faceless, too. This reaches depressing depths at the modern tasting counter, which during my time as critic came to dominate the fancy-dining sector. A few of these places are wonderfully personal and idiosyncratic, but many of them feel utterly interchangeable — they follow the same template, down to the signed menu you’re given as you leave, as if you were going to run right home and paste it in your scrapbook.’

(…)

‘A server’s little smiles, rehearsed jokes, out-of-nowhere raves for the daily special and so on may be subtle or not-so-subtle efforts to bump up the check and the tip, but they also ground us. Without them, the meal may be faster and cheaper, but it leaves us feeling a little empty.’

Read the article here.

Faster, cheaper but a little empty.

One of the better definitions of modernity that started a few centuries ago, just to remind you.

The interchangeability of our experiences, not in the last place our expensive experiences. Yes, I agree.

I gave up on most tasting menus. It saves money as well. And time. But in NYC they manage to push you through a seven-course tasting menu within two hours.

No complaints.

A last note: the longing for the real human is just about to begin. (But there are dogs to comfort us.)