Are All New Restaurants the Same Restaurant?

Plus: Bulk Negronis and Cold Bucatini.

Hey Thursday friends,

By the time you read this, I’ll be on a plane to Boston. The plan was for me to spend the weekend there with Craig (he’s currently in pre-production for a movie in Concord) but, as it happens, there’s a snowstorm coming and he wants me to come up to Concord before the storm hits and now the Boston plans are scratched (at least for this weekend).

When I thought Boston was happening, I spent a few days poring through Eater Boston and Infatuation Boston and asking Boston friends where I should eat. As I was poring, a thought occurred to me: how many of these hot new Boston restaurants remind me of the hot new restaurants in L.A.? And for that matter, hot new restaurants in Seattle? New York? Chicago? London?

Let’s look, for example, at Chickadee in Boston.

Chickadee is just the kind of place I’d be happy to eat (and I really hope to eat there someday). But look at that design and compare it to the design in the lead pic from The Girl and the Goat in LA: I see warm woods. I see similar light fixtures. I see a plant. (And subway tiles are so popular right now, I even have them in my rental kitchen.)

More importantly, let’s look at the menus: at Chickadee there are snacks like “dips and spreads" At Girl and the Goat, there are “Naan and Dips.” Chickadee offers tzatziki, pimento-feta, black bean hummus, marinated olives, and fresh pita; The Girl and the Goat offers tahini tofu and carrot hummus.

Dips at Chickadee.

I’m singling out these restaurants totally at random, but you see my point. And I haven’t even gotten started on fresh, handmade pasta (Chickadee has a whole pasta menu). Every major city in America now has a phalanx of restaurants offering artisanal, handmade pastas. Don’t get me wrong: pasta is my favorite food group. My death row meal? Pasta. My tattoo if I were to get one? A bowl of pasta. I love pasta more than I love my dog and I love my dog more than anything except my husband. My point is: how many artisanal, handmade pasta spots does a city need?