Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

tuffenuff2

Active Member
For those who don’t know, you can find a box of Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix at the store. Easy-peasy to make. All you need extra is shredded cheese.
Have made them a few times. Excellent!
Have even used them when I’ve made biscuits and gravy.

Sometimes I wonder why I’m still single - lol. JK!
There's also a gluten free one.
 

FettZilla

Active Member
Hasn't been the same since Bert's 50's diner closed last year. All we have is fast-food joints now. We need a good restaurant. And what's going on with the St. Mary's Landing since new ownership? Nothing's happening there.
 

Kyle

ULTRA-F###ING-MAGA!
PREMO Member
Hasn't been the same since Bert's 50's diner closed last year. All we have is fast-food joints now. We need a good restaurant. And what's going on with the St. Mary's Landing since new ownership? Nothing's happening there.
My bet is they bulldoze it and build a Dollar General.
 

OccamsRazor

Well-Known Member
Hasn't been the same since Bert's 50's diner closed last year. All we have is fast-food joints now. We need a good restaurant. And what's going on with the St. Mary's Landing since new ownership? Nothing's happening there.
Problem is that new places just don't get the support. Many "local" places have opened in the last 10 years. All A lot of them closed within a year or two. People constantly complain "there are no local places to eat!!" yet, the parking lots are empty when they do open.

(EDITED for correctness and clarity)
 
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RoseRed

American Beauty
PREMO Member
Problem is that new places just don't get the support. Many "local" places have opened in the last 10 years. All of them closed within a year or two. People constantly complain "there are no local places to eat!!" yet, the parking lots are empty when they do open.
Pier450 opened during COVID and is doing a booming business. I hope SALT does the same. Stirred in Hollywood started out strong in spring, but then completely lost the plot and are already closed. The Front Porch, The Rex and Olde Town Pub have all been there for years. As have Asahi and Okada.
 

RoseRed

American Beauty
PREMO Member
The 'rumor' I heard was that they had an issue with their liquor license. That's a death sentence in good ole' SOMD!
They opened without it and it was granted a month or so later. Rumor was then the owner broke her foot, then there was a death in someone's family (not local). Their Facebook is gone, so no one can go back and read about it.
 

NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
Pier450 opened during COVID and is doing a booming business. I hope SALT does the same. Stirred in Hollywood started out strong in spring, but then completely lost the plot and are already closed. The Front Porch, The Rex and Olde Town Pub have all been there for years. As have Asahi and Okada.
SALT is packed at night and the locals love it. A friend of ours has been eating there twice a week since the day it opened.
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
For your consideration ...

Problem is that new places just don't get the support. Many "local" places have opened in the last 10 years. All A lot of them closed within a year or two. People constantly complain "there are no local places to eat!!" yet, the parking lots are empty when they do open.

(EDITED for correctness and clarity)

Yup. They had, Hiiiigh, high hopes, they had, hiiiigh, high hopes, when they all started out. Then reality slaps them in the face with regulations, health department gestapos, market instabilities, inflation, finding quality employees, more inflation, finding out they don't have the buying power of a corporation that has 3000 restaurants across the US, even more inflation, the constant increase in annual rents, (very few own their land and building anymore), and taxes, lots and lots of taxes, and permits, lots and lots of permits. Kinda hard to complete against corporations that only have to sell some extra stock for the money to expand operations, or low interest loans, building new restaurants, and gets sweetheart deals from government. It's even more hard to compete when the marketplace is flooded on near every corner or strip of road with cookie-cutter restaurant boxes with low priced food offerings. And ...... they still had to worry about making their own home mortgage payment and other personal associated monthly bills, in addition to the business bills. And possibly the HELOC they took out to start the business to begin with.

And then, annnnd then, people have gotten so used to the made up atmospheres of these cookie-cutter restaurants, getting seated quickly with a glass of something also quickly placed on the table, and their, (most likely patented), processes of getting food to the tables quickly, (due to pre-portioned-sized ready to cook/heat for the plate food), that when they do try a new entrepreneur started venue, they instantly become disheartened, nit-pick over the smallest things they've been accustomed to getting, never to return. The public has been to conditioned on corporate restaurants, of all types, that no matter how hard a gusty entrepreneur person tries to compete, it nearly always ends in failure. Not becasue of the lack of want or spirit or gung ho'ness or experience of the entrepreneur, but becasue of the market conditioning of the people to unconsciously favor corporations.

Restaurants, food service, has long been stacked against the bright eyed starry eyed boot lacing entrepreneur. Just ask @Gilligan.
 

NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
For your consideration ...



Yup. They had, Hiiiigh, high hopes, they had, hiiiigh, high hopes, when they all started out. Then reality slaps them in the face with regulations, health department gestapos, market instabilities, inflation, finding quality employees, more inflation, finding out they don't have the buying power of a corporation that has 3000 restaurants across the US, even more inflation, the constant increase in annual rents, (very few own their land and building anymore), and taxes, lots and lots of taxes, and permits, lots and lots of permits. Kinda hard to complete against corporations that only have to sell some extra stock for the money to expand operations, or low interest loans, building new restaurants, and gets sweetheart deals from government. It's even more hard to compete when the marketplace is flooded on near every corner or strip of road with cookie-cutter restaurant boxes with low priced food offerings. And ...... they still had to worry about making their own home mortgage payment and other personal associated monthly bills, in addition to the business bills. And possibly the HELOC they took out to start the business to begin with.

And then, annnnd then, people have gotten so used to the made up atmospheres of these cookie-cutter restaurants, getting seated quickly with a glass of something also quickly placed on the table, and their, (most likely patented), processes of getting food to the tables quickly, (due to pre-portioned-sized ready to cook/heat for the plate food), that when they do try a new entrepreneur started venue, they instantly become disheartened, nit-pick over the smallest things they've been accustomed to getting, never to return. The public has been to conditioned on corporate restaurants, of all types, that no matter how hard a gusty entrepreneur person tries to compete, it nearly always ends in failure. Not becasue of the lack of want or spirit or gung ho'ness or experience of the entrepreneur, but becasue of the market conditioning of the people to unconsciously favor corporations.

Restaurants, food service, has long been stacked against the bright eyed starry eyed boot lacing entrepreneur. Just ask @Gilligan.
Starry eyed Gilligan. That's LOL.
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
For your consideration ...

Starry eyed Gilligan. That's LOL.

Too funny. I did not mean to imply Gilligan was starry eyed but that he would say starting a restaurant today is an uphill battle. Pretty sure he's been around the block to time or two, and must have a black patch over one eye, with a "Wha cha frock'in look'in at" with the other, and an empty Corona bottle with the stem now a handle ready to swing while tending to his BBQ. Just guessing here though.
 

NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
For your consideration ...



Too funny. I did not mean to imply Gilligan was starry eyed but that he would say starting a restaurant today is an uphill battle. Pretty sure he's been around the block to time or two, and must have a black patch over one eye, with a "Wha cha frock'in look'in at" with the other, and an empty Corona bottle with the stem now a handle ready to swing while tending to his BBQ. Just guessing here though.
I know. I know him in person. He does have pretty eyes though. Soulful. Like a Labador Retriever.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
For your consideration ...




Restaurants, food service, has long been stacked against the bright eyed starry eyed boot lacing entrepreneur. Just ask @Gilligan.
To be frank...my failure to keep Swann's Resort rolling onward was entirely due to a damned hurricane. Fran came in and wrecked my newly rebuilt dock..my new gas and diesel fuel pumps (huge $$$$) ..my sea wall,etc etc...all things that were not covered..and cannot be covered..by insurance. This is what it looked like just before Fran hit...we were on a roll. and rocking the largest, most expansive liquor license the county ever issued. There will never be another like it.
Swanns in 1996 when I owned it.jpg
 
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