EatChicago.net comments on a Chicago Magazine one-pager about the “Check, Please” effect.
The story is really just a list, and it’s not particularly insightful, but it does raise an interesting issue: Are we ruining our own dining experiences restaurants by publicizing them? Every restaurant critic, journalist, and food-lover wrestles with this issue. Do I tell my friends about the great little place where the food is great, the prices low, and I can always get a table? What if they tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on….??
EatChicago contends that it is our duty to tell other food-lovers about the places we love. Damn the consequences.
They mention Hema’s Kitchen, which apparently has both doubled it’s Devon location space and begun the process of opening a second location. We actually finally went to Hema’s shortly after they were on “Check, Please,” and while it was fine, we were a little underwhelmed. I’d actually heard a lot about it earlier, and our timing was kind of coincidental. We had a good but not life changing meal; Udupi Palace still reigns supreme among our Devon Street stop-offs, although we had some very good carry-out from Arya Bhavan just last weekend.
The restaurant closest to our hearts that has experienced the “Check, Please” phenomenon would be Ethiopian Diamond. We’ve been going for years, to the point where the proprietors called us to tell us to come for the taping. We rounded up a sizeable group, and in fact, I got just a little bit of camera time, although the crew was more interested in Dennis and Julie’s three-year-old, who, truth be told, is cuter. Anyway, since then, E.D. does seem to be serving larger crowds, which I think is great. The place was huge, so it hasn’t gotten overcrowded, and service was never the strong suit, so it’s not like the crowds could ruin that facet.
So in the interest of telling about the places we love, I’ll just mention my newest fave. Our neighbors introduced us to Thai Home Made, on Western Ave just south of Lunt. Among the dishes I’ve quite enjoyed are the som tom (papaya salad), Larb Gai (ground chicken salad), lime chicken, and fried dried beef. Some of those are only on the special thai menu tucked into the regular one they bring you. Check it out.
