There are two schools of thought. The first school, whose most ardent advocates are my parents, believes that old people know value. Old people, recognizing that they do not have all that much time remaining on this earth, will not tolerate anything less than pure culinary delight. They want their good food at a good price. My parents believe that if you walk into a restaurant, and there are lots of old people (and it’s later than 4:30pm, which is the old people dinner hour), it’s bound to be good eating.
The second school of thought (to which I lean) says that old people know, better than anyone, that life is a series of compromises. That there is no such thing as perfect. That some things just aren’t worth getting upset over. And that when you walk into a restaurant full of old people, there are no guarantees except that you can likely get dinner for two for five bucks and a pack of smokes.
So I went to dinner tonight with a friend. As usual, we had no plan. Because our food habits are different (basically, anything she can eat, I can’t; and anything I can eat, she can’t), finding a restaurant can sometimes be an adventure. Tonight, we drove around until we found something that we thought might do: Hamburger Hamlet. Neither of us had been in before, but we figured we’d try it.
As the host is walking us back to our booth (past all the plush pleather chairs), my friend grabs my arm and whispers, “Oh, no! This is an OLD PEOPLE restaurant!” Nevertheless, we stayed for dinner.
A third school of thought, which I subscribe to, is that old people can’t really taste anything anymore but usually have digestive systems that don’t do well with spicy food. So they’ll go wherever food is bland and cheap, even if it tastes like shit.
Just this week I offered to treat an old friend to dinner at a local jazz restaurant that most youngsters find a little pricey. (She opted for soup and sandwiches at a local bookstore cafe instead.)
Okay. So I confess to having eaten at Luby’s a few times…in a row.
One of my favorite restaurants in town is an “old people restaurant.” It’s just a little local place. Jam-packed on Sunday afternoons with the same people every week, open from about 5:30 a.m. (so the old people who get up early can go) and closes about 7 p.m. (since they’re all asleep by then). Dinner for two for under $10 (and it’ll get you full), “comfort food,” breakfast anytime. Mashed potatoes, open-faced roast beef sandwich with gravy, meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, desserts by the slice on a slowly-turning cooler.
I think the average age of the patrons has got to be pushing 65 or 70.
When my folks come down to visit, we head over to Cape Coral to eat at “Mr. C’s.”
It’s an expensive place full of old people. And the food is awesome. Great prime ribs and good seafood. So if you see a lot of well-off old people in a restaurant, you can bet that it’s good.
Just stay out of the Geezer Buffets. You always get stuck behind some old fart with a walker and by the time you get back to your booth, your food is cold.
At the risk of arousing ire, I have to note that we accepted an invitation to a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant that was definitely an “old people’s restaurant”. Our presence, and especially our daughter’s, severely threw off the statistics. We were the youngest people in the place, by decades.
The food was unbelievably awful.
The restaurant got bulldozed a couple of months ago.
This might explain the continued existance of the Greek diner down the street from my house. The food is awful, but the place is always full of bluehairs.
On the other hand, there is a couple who are somewhat older than dirt who can be found every Friday night in the Italian place a bit further down the road. The food there is fantastic.
As much as I love the concept of all-you-can-eat, too many buffets serve mediocre, bland food, catering (no pun intended) to the old people crowd. Golden Corral is probably the best of these “home cookin’” buffets, but that’s not saying much. Personally, I love the food at Cracker Barrel, as does everyone else I know, but I have heard it referred to as an “old people restaurant” as well. I think it’s definitely a cut above, and it would be a dream come true (and a health nightmare) if they ever offered all-you-can-eat specials.
Then again, I’m also a sucker for kitschy diners and New York-style delis, both of which attract old folks here in Florida. I’ll eat meatloaf, stuffed cabbage, Reuben sandwiches, or liver and onions with the oldest geezers out there!
My dad loved Hometown Buffet (or ‘Blue Hair Buffet’, as I called it.) I think it may have something to do with being a child during the Depression. Or maybe it was a holdover from the time when Sir George’s Smorgasbord was popular. He always kept his cupboards fully stocked, and I think he liked the idea of eating as much as he wanted for a low price.
Sometimes co-workers and I would go to Blue Hair Buffet for lunch. (Comment from one about buffets in general: ‘Ugh! Steaming troughs of food! ick’) Lots of old people, and lots of people with ill-mannered children.
My take: Edible fuel without much flavour. Not a great value, because I didn’t eat a whole lot of food. (Yeah, I’d go back for ‘seconds’ on a couple of things; but I never got plate after plate after plate, as some people do.) There are much better places to eat, at similar prices.
One co-worker refused to go to an oldster’s buffet. Once when he was at one and old man carrying a tray of food fell to the floor. The old man picked himself up and sat in a chair and cried. My co-worker said it tore him up inside to see someone so humiliated by something that was out of his (the old man’s) control.
Hamburger Hamlet. I remember going there when I was a kid. I loved the place, since they had some sort of burger that had a very good flavour. There was a Hamburger Hamlet a couple of miles away from my apartment in L.A., and I went there a few times. Not as good as I’d remembered, but not bad. I didn’t notice a large number of oldsters there.
Hoff’s Hut (Chapman and Lewis, in Orange) seems to be an oldster hangout. Its traditional American food is actually quite good, if a bit expensive.
“old people” and “Truckers” are the best indicators that a restaurant will sell goodcheap comfort food.
“buisness suits” tend to indicate the food is pricey, pretty and designed to be pushed arround the plate without being eaten.
“Locals who chat with the owner” probably the best sign of all, good quality and reasonable prices.
There’s an “Old People’s” Bar in my neighborhood. Median age of the typical patron is 65, at least. TV is permanently on the Golf Channel. It’s dark and creepy inside. Whenever you go in, everybody turns around and stares at you. They drink a lot of liquor. I don’t go there much anymore. I used to go when they had a pinball machine, but they took that out and replaced it with Golden Tee Golf.
Mama Cosa’s, in Orange (County, someplace). A dimly-lit local Italian restaurant, people seem to know each other there. The food is good, and inexpensive. Diners seem to be a mixture of people who work in the area and older people.
As for value: I liked to get the prime rib sandwich for $8 (I think) including tax and tip.
[ul][li]Meal 1: The very good salad, two slices of garlic bread, onion rings (three, on top of the meat).[/li][li]Meal 2: Two slices of garlic bread to close the sandwich. Eat the sandwich. (This sometimes made two meals.)[/li][li]Meal 3: The cole slaw, apple, and pickle.[/li][li]Meal 4: French fries, reheated in the oven so they’re crispy.[/ul][/li]That’s up to five meals for under ten simoleons. I’d call that a good value. (When I had Italian food, I’d usually get angel hsir pasta with alfredo and chicken. With the salad and garlic bread, this made two or three meals; again, for about $10.)
Near my house, there’s a diner where I frequently go for breakfast. The food is excellent, and the cook’ll make it any way you want. It’s also dirt cheap; I can get a full meal and coffee for under five bucks.
But I like the atmosphere. It’s a popular gathering spot for kaffeeklatches; it’s neat to hear the discussions that go on. And the waitresses know me; the son of one of them is a friend of my sister-in-law’s. This morning, I sat down to coffee and French vanilla creamer, which was waiting for me. I like that.
There’s another diner not far from me that just opened up. Breakfast is OK, but it’s obvious that the dinner menu was designed for old farts. The vegetables are overcooked and soft, the meat and sauces are horribly bland, and the bread is white. They have good desserts, though.
I don’t think there is any common denominator for “old people’s restarrants”. In S. Florida, the old timers always hit the places as early as 3 PM (“Early Bird specials”).As for bland food, I think that is true-older people have trouble with spicey food. But, no stereotype is really true-remeber the rumor about truckdrivers? Supposedly, truckdrivers eat at places where the food is good. Unfortunately, this is not true-truckdrivers seem to thrive on acid coffe and greasy food. I can vouch for that!
The truck drivers test really works when travelling long distance. Always try to pick the place which has plenty of trucks parked outside. The food wont be healthy but it will be hearty, pleasant and cheap.
As an official old people, I avoid old people restaurants like the plague. I prefer to go to young people restaurants just to annoy the young punks, er, people who hang out there.
(When I had Italian food, I’d usually get angel hsir pasta with alfredo and chicken. With the salad and garlic bread, this made two or three meals; again, for about $10.)