I’d much rather have an elitist in the White House than a total fuckwit like Bush or Palin.
Anyone else think of that great scene in Mystic Pizza when the Julia Roberts character (whose family are lobstermen and she hates shellfish because of it) goes to the hoity-toity house for a date and is served… lobster? 
Is that where the term oyster bar came from? 
Goats! Love em to death, from a distance. Is one of them named Bill Grogan, by chance? (I didn’t even know there was a Falmouth PA. I assumed it was Falmouth UK at first!)
It’s just a little village of maybe a couple hundred people. I’m less than ten miles away from it, but I’d forget it even existed if it weren’t for the goat races (coming up in less than three weeks!).
I’m onboard with the rest of the post, but I’ve got to take issue with this. Seriously, if the food is of the approximately the same quality, why in the hell would you pay $200 for a steak? If it’s not for the food what is the premium for? Paying a 5x premium just to sit in a nicer room for a couple of hours (surrounded by ‘nicer’ people, one supposes) smacks of…of…well the word escapes me.
Don’t defend the bathwater along with the baby.
Last time I ate at a costly restaurant, I got to eat in a beautiful flowering garden, on the bank of a small river, with tables widely spaced. It was right in the middle of the town. The alternative would have been a crowded and noisy restaurant, with a view on the river over other patrons’ shoulders, the restaurant window, and the traffic in the street. So, yes, the environment certainly was worth a premium. Same with beautifully decorated restaurants, for instance.
But, more importantly, when you pay much more, the food is rarely “approximately of the same quality”. It’s almost always significantly better. You can have your steak, I’ll have the “Magret de canard grillé à la plancha et sa poire d’amour Williams pochée au Syrah, écrasé de pomme de terre parfumé à l’huile de truffe noire” (actually not even that costly, and served in Paris’ oldest house, which is interesting in itself).
Now, people paying a huge premium to stay in costly hotels… a bed is a bed, as long as there are no cockroaches, right? Those are obviously elitists.
What clair said. And yes,some people can actually taste the difference, and are willing to pay for it. I can get Surf and Turf from Applebees or from The Seafood Shanty. The cost isn’t much different (three times, maybe?) but the quality difference is vast. Locally caught seafood has a far different mouthfeel than something frozen and warehoused in Wichita.
And the service? I’ve never paid $200 for a steak, but I once paid $300 for a meal for two. The service was – well – clairavoyant. It was a special night, and I wanted to treat my special friend to – well – elitism. At one point I dropped a spoon. It never even hit the floor. The waiter ran over, caught it, and replaced it with one that he hand-washed between the catching and replacing. In that split second I think he also suited up to defeat both The Joker and The Riddler, and was back in time to serve us warm bread. With a smile.
Fuck yeah he got a tip.
Huh. My son has adored lobster since he was 5 or 6. I guess he.s an elitist, too.
The religious elitists are the ones I don’t dig. “We’re saved - you’re not - na-na-na-na-naaa-na.”
I know this runs contrary to the point of the OP, but I’m jali and I’m an elitist.
It’s elitist to like clean, starched, white tablecloths, a wait staff that doesn’t want to be your pal and reliable service? I don’t want to dine out and use paper napkins.
Heck, if it’s all the same, why bother with the plates or silverware?
:eek:
I don’t think that was the question, I think the question is what is the difference between a really good Steak House with “clean, starched, white tablecloths” that costs maybe $50 for the meal and one that costs $200 but it is either private and exclusive or super trendy?
I like going to great restaurants, but I have never found the $100 + places to be any better than the good $50 places I go or some of the great hole in the walls in NYC that run in the $40 to $60 range but aren’t trendy but have amazing food.
Yes, there is a huge difference between a $20 steak place and a good $50 steak place, but I don’t see the improvement in the $100+ places.
Heineken is bottled pigpiss.
But you americans will drink anything bottled in europe and think its “cultured”.
Probably because all american beer is dilluted heineken.
You make a good point and since I’m no foodie, I won’t disagree. I feel the same way about hotel rooms–I don’t need a bathrobe or a phone in the bathroom to make me feel special. Then again, stale bagels in the lobby the next day do suck…
I was considering something along the lines of Denny’s or Ponderosa vs the mid-range steak house. Chez Paul is nice and all, but not for me–but I don’t find those who like it elitist. It’s just different strokes. Now, if those who frequent Chez Paul turn up their noses at beef jerky when we’re lost on a trail in the desert, then, yes, they are elitists.
This stopped being true a very long time ago. Microbrews in the US can stand up to any Euro beer. Now, if you’re talking about swill like Budweiser, Coors, and any of those god-awful “lite” beers, I’ll agree with you. But I spent seven years in Europe, drinking beer in both the west and east, and can tell you that there are beers here in America now that are every bit the equal of them.
Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!
Fuck you up the ass with a rusty garden weasel.
Sideways.
There are a lot of good american beers. We just keep them at home so we can drink them. 
I quite understand. You give us budwasser and we give you heineken.
Fair trade.
Except we have no illusions regarding bud.
While you seem to think Heineken is PREMIUM. shudders
This is true. But I’m still going to look down my nose at my shipmates who went hunting from bar to bar while we were in port at Toulon back in 1992, looking for one that would sell Miller. :eek:
Sure, I was going to fire back at you, but you had to go all reasonable.
While I do dislike Heinypiss and think it taste worse than Bud, I do almost always look for Bass Ale and my Bud swilling friends make jokes about it. However, I drink it as I really like it and I really don’t care what others think about Bass Ale. It has the taste I enjoy the most.
This is kind of like saying, “I can’t believe someone called me an elitist for living in Brooklyn!” He was an idiot for using the term ‘elitist,’ but not for associating it with PBR.
[quote=“eleanorigby, post:32, topic:462661”]
You make a good point and since I’m no foodie, I won’t disagree. I feel the same way about hotel rooms–I don’t need a bathrobe or a phone in the bathroom to make me feel special. Then again, stale bagels in the lobby the next day do suck…
[QUOTE]
I think it’s a question of whether you would refuse to eat/sleep anywhere else. I have stayed in amazing hotels (wedding night, birthday treat etc.) as well as stayed in some (loveable) dives and eaten some delicious but very humble food in my time. I think that ‘elitist’ is being used in the same sense as ‘snob’ - in my opinion a snob won’t eat/sleep etc. anywhere but the best/most expensive places and will look down on those that do.
I think that ‘snob’ in this sense can also be applied to people who believe the opposite, it’s just as bad to assume that someone who doesn’t choose to eat at the cheapest place/sleep in the cheapest hotel etc. is some kind of wannabe aristocrat.