I need some help with this one. I’m the only guy in a whole office full of engineers with a liberal arts degree (that’s code for the only one with a clue, but don’t tell them I told you so). We get into the same argument every time we go out to lunch at one of those restaurants with all the junk on their walls for decor. My boss, in the true engineering mindset, thinks that a blueprint exists telling the builder where to place each of the hundreds of pieces of junk on the wall; ( Item 467; pink, plastic, piggy-bank; height from floor 7’4", distance from window 6". I, on the other hand, envision a designer (another career for those with a liberal arts degree) getting a truck-load of junk from the restaurant’s central junk warehouse, and using his own judgement about where to place each item. Please help me show this guy, everything in life doesn’t have a blueprint.
There’s a small wager associated with this one so objective proof would be nice. Thanks.
Looks to be a tie so far. Cecil’s report seems to indicate there is some amount of specificity involved, but not nearly to the degree described by the OP’s engineer:
I can’t imagine there’s a sense of finality or immediate necessity to follow the photograph to the “T”, but one never knows. Plus, Cracker Barrel is several steps closer to Chik-Fil-A in management style than Joe’s Crab Shack is - I’d imagine Joe’s regulations are a bit looser.
Here is the definative proof you are looking for. I worked for both JCS as a waiter and at Landry’s corporate office here in muggy Houston. I have been to the “Central Repository of Crap” aka Corporate Warehouse.
Here is how it all works:
Landry’s Restaurants employs a guy whose sole job it is to travel the country buying the crap you see displayed on the walls of various Landry’s owned establishments. This stuff is then brought back to Houston where it is catalogued and stored in the warehouse. When a store is built, remodeled or redecorated the designer is brought in and just starts going wild. There are a few things that you will find on display at every JCS/Landry’s/Crab House/etc. (the big ass shark) but for the most part the designer just gets to go wild.
FYI - The guy who does the designs for JCS is about 65, no degree, and grumpy. He never saw the humor in me putting the puffer fish on a plate and delivering it as the special of the day…
I once dated a girl who worked in the decorating dept. for Ralph Lauren/Polo. IIRC, the head office learns in advance what nooks and corners need to be filled will old wooden tennis racquets, battered Eve-esque steamer trunks (the trunks Eve, not you), polo mallets, college cheerleader megaphones, wood-shaft golf clubs etc. A load of said crap gets sent to the store with a front-office or regional decorator who arranges it artistically.
Hey if you want to see the REAL THING, check out Montero’s, a small, unassuming dockworkers’ bar on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn. The only thing older than ample assortment of dusty ship models, life preservers, pin-ups, and photos of FDR on the walls is the bartender.
I’ve always been pissed off at the number of deep-sea divers’ dresses in those seafood places. You know how EXPENSIVE it is to buy a used diving helmet? And these guys probably picked up the whole rig for fifty bucks someplace.
Uke, I can’t believe you don’t know about Montero’s! If ever a place had the kind of local color I know you appreciate, it’s Montero’s. Funny thing about it, it attracts a weird mix of toothless retired stevadores, gen y’ers, and lesbians.
As for the decor, don’t miss the gen-u-wine wooden box phone booth (a dying breed as the Sunday Times noted) and the miniature scale model ship’s engine gathering dust inside the chicken wire display case.
It’s on Atlantic and something like Hicks or Henry. North side of the street, a few blocks inland from the water, bigish red lighted sign out front.
The beer’s cheap, but don’t ask for anything more exotic than bud. Call me if you want to go together some night. I’m serious.
PS – NYC dopers take note. This might be prime spot for a Doperfest.