Writing In Restaurants

"Essays in direct line from Stanislavsky, Chekhov, Shaw, and Brecht" —Mike Nichols A collection of essays from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet adressing many issues in contemporary American theater Temporarily putting aside his role as playwright, director, and screen-writer, David Mamet digs deep and delivers thirty outrageously diverse vignettes. On subjects ranging from the vanishing American pool hall, family vacations, and the art of being a bitch, to the role of today's actor, his celebrated contemporaries and predecessors, and his undying commitment to the theater, David Mamet's concise style, lean dialogue, and gut-wrenching honesty give us a unique view of the world as he sees it.

A searing expose of the restaurant industry, and a path to a better, safer, happier meal. In the years before the pandemic, the restaurant business was booming. Americans spent more than half of their annual food budgets dining out. In a generation, chefs had gone from behind-the-scenes laborers to TV stars. The arrival of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other meal delivery apps was overtaking home cooking. Beneath all that growth lurked serious problems. Many of the best restaurants in the world employed unpaid cooks. Meal delivery apps were putting restaurants out of business. And all that dining out meant dramatically less healthy diets. The industry may have been booming, but it also desperately needed to change. Then, along came COVID-19. From the farm to the street-side patio, from the sweaty kitchen to the swarm of delivery vehicles buzzing about our cities, everything about the restaurant business is changing, for better or worse. The Next Supper tells this story and offers clear and essential advice for what and how to eat to ensure the well-being of cooks and waitstaff, not to mention our bodies and the environment. The Next Supper reminds us that breaking bread is an essential human activity and charts a path to preserving the joy of eating out in a turbulent era.

In 2016, Globe and Mail reporter Ann Hui drove across Canada, from Victoria to Fogo Island, to write about small-town Chinese restaurants and the families who run them. It was only after the story was published that she discovered her own family could have been included—her parents had run their own Chinese restaurant, The Legion Cafe, before she was born. This discovery, and the realization that there was so much of her own history she didn’t yet know, set her on a time-sensitive mission: to understand how, after generations living in a poverty-stricken area of Guangdong, China, her family had somehow wound up in Canada. Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurantsweaves together Hui’s own family history—from her grandfather’s decision to leave behind a wife and newborn son for a new life, to her father’s path from cooking in rural China to running some of the largest “Western” kitchens in Vancouver, to the unravelling of a closely guarded family secret—with the stories of dozens of Chinese restaurant owners from coast to coast. Along her trip, she meets a Chinese-restaurant owner/small-town mayor, the owner of a Chinese restaurant in a Thunder Bay curling rink, and the woman who runs a restaurant alone, 365 days a year, on the very remote Fogo Island. Hui also explores the fascinating history behind “chop suey” cuisine, detailing the invention of classics like “ginger beef” and “Newfoundland chow mein,” and other uniquely Canadian fare like the “Chinese pierogies” of Alberta. Hui, who grew up in authenticity-obsessed Vancouver, begins her journey with a somewhat disparaging view of small-town “fake Chinese” food. But by the end, she comes to appreciate the essentially Chinese values that drive these restaurants—perseverance, entrepreneurialism and deep love for family. Using her own family’s story as a touchstone, she explores the importance of these restaurants in the country’s history and makes the case for why chop suey cuisine should be recognized as quintessentially Canadian.

Contemporary food goes way beyond avocado and quinoa salads. Delicious Places presents the new wave of cafés, restaurants and entrepreneurs that are writing a fresh chapter on culinary culture.Food culture has come a long way. New restaurants, bars and cafés are born out of fresh ideas that, with a clever twist, lead to an ­unprecedented culinary experience that ­balances location and concept--and ultimately influences a new world of food.Delicious Places collects the examples that execute the business idea in the best possible way. Single-dish restaurants, traditional ­pasticcerias, fisherman cooperatives with the freshest produce or high-end restaurants in the mountains. They offer a unique experience that starts the moment you set foot in the door and spans from the interiors to the branding, and behind the scenes to the supply chains and sustainable procedures. Take a seat at the table and feast your senses one by one--the mind will follow.

This Restaurant Journal is perfect to record your experiences at restaurants, whether you are a food critic or just enjoy dining out. This journal/diary will help you keep track of your experiences at restaurants, which you like and don't like. Each page contains prompts that include: Restaurant Name- Restaurant Name, Date of Visit, Time of Reservation, Server Name, Manager on Duty. Party Members - Names, Meals Ordered, Quality, Price. Service - Warm Welcome?, Attentiveness & Pace of Service, Gave Good Recommendations?, Accuracy of Service. Beverage Service - Good Recommendations?, Experience Details?. Cleanliness - Restaurant Cleanliness, Restroom Cleanliness. Overall Review & Impressions - Would You Recommend?, Opportunities for Improvement. Mileage, Compensation, Received - Blank Lined to Write Your Number. Can also make a great gift for that special person. Perfect gifts for your family and friends. You will be able to keep all your information about the restaurants for writing your reviews all in one place and record your favorite, comes in handy. Size is 6x9 inches, 88 pages, white paper, soft matte finish cover, paperback. Easy to use daily. Get one now

A global history of restaurants beyond white tablecloths and maître d’s, Dining Out presents restaurants both as businesses and as venues for a range of human experiences. From banquets in twelfth-century China to the medicinal roots of French restaurants, the origins of restaurants are not singular—nor is the history this book tells. Katie Rawson and Elliott Shore highlight stories across time and place, including how chifa restaurants emerged from the migration of Chinese workers and their marriage to Peruvian businesswomen in nineteenth-century Peru; how Alexander Soyer transformed kitchen chemistry by popularizing the gas stove, pre-dating the pyrotechnics of molecular gastronomy by a century; and how Harvey Girls dispelled the ill repute of waiting tables, making rich lives for themselves across the American West. From restaurant architecture to technological developments, staffing and organization, tipping and waiting table, ethnic cuisines, and slow and fast foods, this delectably illustrated and profoundly informed and entertaining history takes us from the world’s first restaurants in Kaifeng, China, to the latest high-end dining experiences.

An art expert takes a critical look at restaurant menus—from style and layout to content, pricing and more—to reveal the hidden influence of menu design. We’ve all ordered from a restaurant menu. But have you ever wondered to what extent the menu is ordering you? In May We Suggest, art historian and gastronome Alison Pearlman focuses her discerning eye on the humble menu to reveal a captivating tale of persuasion and profit. Studying restaurant menus through the lenses of art history, experience design and behavioral economics, Pearlman reveals how they are intended to influence our dining experiences and choices. Then she goes on a mission to find out if, when, and how a menu might sway her decisions at more than sixty restaurants across the greater Los Angeles area. What emerges is a captivating, thought-provoking study of one of the most often read but rarely analyzed narrative works around.