Restaurant Trends Quotes

You don't see very many Irish-Cypriot pop-up restaurants kicking about!

In San Francisco, the majority of the restaurants are ingredient-driven. In New York, that is true as well, but there's also a greater focus on technique.

One thing I can't afford to get sucked up in is the trend formation of restaurants here. I've invested heavily. We have a ten-year lease. More importantly, the style, the feel and the décor of the dining room is vibrant.

I'm such an avid magazine reader - music, art, beauty magazines - and I found that food and restaurants were pouring into everything I cared about. Whether it was the pop-up concept, or some mysterious mini-mall restaurant, I got swept up in the sexy romance of the food movement.

When people pile seven things onto one burger, it drives me nuts!

Most restaurants in most cities, including Washington, are at a sort of mid-level. They're somewhat trendy, or they have some sort of gimmick, or they're somewhat expensive. And they make a lot of money off drinks. I tell people don't go to most of them, unless your goal is just to socialize.

What people eat is not well documented. Food writers prefer to focus on fashionable, expensive restaurants whose creative dishes reflect little of what most people are eating.

In more day-to-day restaurants, things have undergone a seismic change towards informality and sharing, which has been years in the making. Nowadays, people don't want just one dish; they want to order lots of things and they want to do it in fun places, places that give them an experience. The experience that a restaurant needs to offer is no longer just based around the food.

It was a revolution, but now it is an evolution. People know more ingredients, people know more techniques, and people look for more ingredients they've never looked for before. In the '80s, you couldn't find raw tuna in any restaurant that wasn't Japanese. Now, you can't find any restaurant without it or sashimi.

Everybody eats three times a day; it's only a question of where they choose to eat. The longer-term trends are people eat out more often.

I haven't thought too much about the word 'foodie,' but I definitely lie closer to the 'I just need to eat a thing to fuel myself' end of the spectrum. It's not quite a hobby. I don't feel a need to try all the newest restaurants.

Everybody has to put purees underneath everything now. It's like people think we need the steak, and then we need some baby food with it.

I've discovered the burger is a crazy thing in Vegas, but I was one of the early chefs to do a lot of burgers.

I think that more and more and more really talented restauranteurs and chefs from the fine dining world are going to try their hand at fine casual. They're going to say, 'Why not us?'