A peculiar self-loathing seem to overcome both Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias upon reading reviews by the N.Y. Times of chain restaurants.
First they both felt the need to establish their bona fides as charter members of foodies-elite. Klein wrote of biking "back from the farmer's market today with a baguette and artisan cheese fastened to my rack." (Yes, he said he bought a "baguette.") Yglesias is equally torn between asserting his membership credentials, and then denying them:
It "is made all the worse by the knowledge that the attitude of contempt is almost certainly fake. I was actually born and raised in Manhattan by fancy-pants parents who wouldn't dream of darkening the door of an Outback Steakhouse."
Atrios also condemns the sneering condescension he found in the reviews in the Times. This is the same Atrios who can dine for days on crustaceans in Barcelona.
Their desperate drive to avoid accusations of pretension, yet retain their membership in the elite, without looking down on anyone mind you, renders them incoherent. While Yglesias is calling the contempt "fake," Atrios entitles his post "Faux Elitist Sneering." Is it a faux sneer or a faux Elitist? A Faux Pas perhaps?
And in fact the Time reviews are not particularly contemptuous. Some of the comments in the article were:
At most of these places, there is indeed something for everyone - frequently with a side of good value.
True Confession: I had a great meal at the Cheesecake Factory.
The menu (with entrees $10 to $21) and flavors are more pan-Asian than Chinese; ingredients unfailingly taste fresh, and vegetables take their rightful place as co-stars to meat. We particularly enjoyed a dish of sugar-snap peas, stir-fried with garlic to peak spring-green sweetness and stir-fried eggplant that retained its shape and texture, as well as the wok-seared marinated lamb over iceberg lettuce.
the fish is just fine: handsomely charred outside, tender and moist inside, with plenty of spice and smoke. The fresh greens are augmented by grape tomatoes, sliced portobello mushrooms and a tangy, creamy vinaigrette
The tiramisù could hold its own anywhere
You want sneering? Here are some comments that the Times reviewer made about a distinctly non-chain restaurant; Alain Ducasse's newest, to which he gave three stars:
Should venison medallions be this bland? Shouldn’t the beef tenderloin with a brick of glazed rib meat be truer to its name?
The reviewer goes on to note that New York's tolerance for Gallic fussbudgets has been tapped "out."
Liberals who believe that elite means the best, and that the best is what we need in a President, should not let themselves get so bolloxed up by articles on steaks and outhouses.
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