Daniel Duane's NY Times rant about Silicon Valley ruining the SF restaurant scene

Personally I think Michelin stars, the Pelligrino lists, and gastrotourism shape high-end dining these days. When Silicon Valley was deep in recession the French Laundry, Coi, and Manresa were still doing well, and restaurants of that type exist in prosperous cities and pricey tourist destinations around the world.

Oops. I posted this in “Food in the new…” as I felt it wasn’t really an SF subject. Please delete if you wish.

Sort of hard to figure out what the article is saying. It actually says that “the food has never been better” thanks to the intense competition…

It’s just not a city for the middle class to dine in apparently…

Weird as hell to me. I have been looking up places and I am stunned at how many places with tasting menus ranging from $40-$90 there are. Seems like things are going pretty spectacularly.

Whether the city is affordable or sustainable seems to be a separate issue from restaurant/food quality.

There are lots of places with good price-quality ratios. The question is whether they can stay open.

A prix-fixe menu (e.g. Trestle) is one way mid-range restaurants try to control costs without cutting quality. Fewer choices = less waste.

Prix-fixe is also how restaurants trying to move from mid-range to high end avoid sticker shock. A main course (except for steak) over $39 is apparently a much harder sell in SF than a larger total bill presented as prix-fixe.