As it is my quest to discuss, criticize and praise the restaurant and service industry in Toronto, I thought it would be prudent to create a hierarchical breakdown of the different types of options when going for a dining experience in the city.
We will list the service industry providers by category and in order of “lowest guest expectations” to “highest guest expectations”.
The Hierarchy
- Street Food Vendors: these are not your modern “gourmet” food trucks, we are talking late night clubbing street meat. It is horrible and serves one purpose…drunk eating. I mean, it is not Mexico, or South East Asia, areas known for its rich and copious street food scenes, its Toronto.
Guest Expectation: Not Dying
- Traditional Fast Food: These are your standards, the brands that we all grew up with, you know the one’s that all have weird YouTube Videos of items being kept for 20 years then opened and found that they never told…never rot…never age, like the Styrofoam they used to be served in.
Guest Expectation: Fast…not good, just fast.
- Gourmet Food Trucks: Okay, these are not with the Street food providers for two reasons…one; the world has been bit by the food truck bug, and frankly that forces most of them to hold a higher and more creative standard, that being said, most are really doing the same shit that the fast food dudes are doing, only they use more clever titling…like gourmet. The second reason; price. They will always price 10%-15% higher then Fast Food and Street Food.
Guest Expectation: Moderate depending on the hype that surrounds the truck.
- The Up and Comers/Fringe Restaurants: These are the out of the box one off places, that slowly become the glue that binds the cities culinary and service world. They charge a bit less then most, with the hopes that the price point will bring the people to the table. They are usually found in inappropriate areas for what they are doing, but they are the prime examples of owners that are doing themselves with a vision and a drive. Simply put, usually the best places in any city.
Guest Expectations: Low, but always blown away after the fact.
- Franchise/Chain Restaurants: These cookie cutter food factories are built on a model, created in a room, by brand builders and marketers to sell a universal experience across all stores no matter where enter one. There is no drive to expand the culinary or service envelope, it is all about volume and power service (Foot Not: power service: when you are forced into a speed service game by the establishment so that they are able to capitalize on table turn over to make profit). These establishments charge relative to the surrounding competitors but never do they stray from the “branded pre-fab experience that the marketers built for profit”.
Guest Expectations: universal…get in…get fed…get out…pay more then you should.
- Mini Franchises/Chain Restaurants: These are the place that come from humble beginnings, like our Up and Coming Group, however they have been noticed and have stockpiled enough capital to expand, so they start dropping locations in different areas of the city. They tend to apply franchise models to the business and over the following years the experience becomes watered down and quickly the standards begin to slip so that profits can be maintained so that the expansion will not completely fall apart. These spots tend to price above the Franchisees, but that is only until the guests stop coming…then they line up right beside the bigger Corporate chains…and die.
Guest Expectations: High, but depending on the stage of expansion, they will be disappointed.
- The “We Got Some Notice” Spots: Every so often a food blogger, or influential personality enters a place…falls in love…and hypes the living shit out of a place. The buzz builds and builds until there is not choice but to recognize them. If the place is run by intelligent people, they capitalize on the hype and work it for all its worth and build a sustainable name, if not, the trend falters and so to do they. These spots start easy on the pocket book, but as the hype grows so to does the price point…so line ups dictate prices.
Guest Expectations: Stupid. Unlike word of mouth, hype becomes fluid enough that you are never told why you should like a place, only that if you don’t you must be broken. As such, the expectation is met, so long as you wait for a stupid amount of time for an unknown and usually unplanned experience.
- The Old Guard: Every city has them. The ULTRA EXPENSIVE steak houses. The places that your grandfather went to for promotion dinners, or the “place politicians are always seen”. They usually have nothing more to offer beyond that which you get at a Keg, but you end up paying for the NAME rather then the food or the experience…and boy, do you pay…think 20% above the Keg for steak that is usually of the same quality. They are also usually time capsules, still service 1970’s style steak house fare…table side Caesar salads and shit…oohhhhhh a salad tosser, exciting.
Guest Expectations: all about being seen the same place the first Mayor of Toronto ate. You do not complain because you can’t afford to.
- The Pretension Club: Between the wooden cutting board, mason jar hipsters and the Celebrity Chefs this, most expensive of the Restaurant Hierarchy is like a game of culinary Russian roulette. Sure there are some spots that shelling out $75 for an entree is worth every bite, but in the end you are not paying for anything more then the name on the door. Then there are those out there who claim to be doing crazy inventive edge cuisine…out of the box amazing…so you should pay 25%-35% more to be the test subjects in this strange gastronomical science experiment. The risk is in the price…not in the chance of having an amazing experience, by in large the “edgy” nature of the evening never fully translates as the “artists” that are peddling the “olive soil” do not relate the intention to you…you are left to figure it all out.
Guest Expectations: so high that when the night sucks balls, the guests blame themselves, cause they didn’t get it…not to worry, if you complain, chances are, that is the sentiment of the restaurateur.
This is not to say that these are the only types out there. I mean sure we could go crazy breaking things down to the lowest common denominator, however, that seems fucking tedious and unnecessary as our list covers the spots that you will see referenced in food guides, blogs, and popular opinion, at least, in today’s industry.
