Posted on 06/27/2018 6:58:37 AM PDT by Simon Green
Souvla, a Greek restaurant with a devoted following, serves spit-fired meat two ways: in a photogenic sandwich, or on a photogenic salad, either available with a glass of Greek wine. The garnishes are thoughtful: pea shoots, harissa-spiked yogurt, mizithra cheese.
The small menu is so appealing and the place itself so charming that you almost forget, as a diner, that you have to do much of the work of dining out yourself. You scout your own table. You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if youd like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.
Runners will bring your order to the table, but there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the last two years: RT Rotisserie, which is roasting cauliflower a few blocks away; Barzotto, a bistro serving hand-rolled pasta in the Mission district; and Media Noche, a Cuban sandwich spot with eye-catching custom tilework.
Inside these restaurants, its evident that the forces making this one of the most expensive cities in America are subtly altering the economics of everything. Commercial rents have gone up. Labor costs have soared. And restaurant workers, many of them priced out by the expense of housing, have been moving away.
Restaurateurs who say they can no longer find or afford servers are figuring out how to do without them. And so in this city of staggering wealth, you can eat like a gourmand, with real stemware and ceramic plates. But first youll have to go get your own silverware.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
lololol.....
It’s always been cold foggy summers. That’s why all the rich magnates in SF built their mansions 30 or more miles south on the peninsula.
I moved there in ‘73 and there was no parking then and rents were absolutely sky-high then, too. It was nicer then because the crazy siocialists hadn’t taken over. The new black female mayor is a real piece of work. Zero government experience...she’s the pet mayor for all the rich libs.
Look out for hypodermic needles!
Who are you supposed to tip when there are no waiters and you have to bus your own (or the previous customers’ germy trash) table?
Aside from busing dirty tables, I’m all for this concept. But they need to lower their prices since the customers are doing a job and they have no waitstaff to pay. What’s with paying dishwashers $18/hr? Might as well have the customers bring in their own tableware same as bringing your own shopping bags.
Another reason in a long list of why I don’t liking eating out. I’ll continue to cook from scratch at home and do my own grocery shopping.
I usually keep meals to less than $2.50 or less than $5/day. Last night, we had http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/chicago_dog_salad.html (three 69 cent cheapo franks) and homemade yogurt with fresh strawberries for dessert so that was way below the budget limit. Don’t drink wine but a glass of homemade ice tea hit the spot.
No fries but figured out a long time ago that one or one and a half potatoes at about 25 cents equals a $3 bag of chips so have been frying my own ever since.
Here, Sonic wants a tip for handing you a sack of burgers.
I have some $1.99/lb pork marinading right now for Char Siu tonight, yum.
Back in 1991, in Charlevoix, Mi., at our neighborhood bar, I kept winning the Trivia Nights so often that I was impressed into service as their bartender.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Got in early, and, an hour or so before sundown, a guy came through my downtown hotel room -- replacing all the video cabling. (Carpet installers had stapled through it...)
When I asked if he knew of a nearby bookstore, he gave me directions -- and advised me to get back to the hotel before dark. When I looked puzzled, he said,
[Verbatim, absolutely true story...]
all those homeless and they can’t find waiters.
There was a place just like the one pictured in Santa Cruz, CA back in the 70’s. I thought it was “Grape Steak”. Is it a chain?
Well behaved kids can’t, but you are dealing the general public... I can see some little kid climbing up on it while their parents yack on their cell phones and falling right on the thing...
In a sane world, the Parents would own their mistake... in the US today that would be a lawsuit against the restaurant.
There was a place just like the one pictured in Santa Cruz, CA back in the 70’s. I thought it was “Grape Steak”. Is it a chain?
As far as I know, it was just a small chain in Virginia.
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/aSobAVWz1J_mfshCHnhjhQ/o.jpg
“You scout your own table. You fetch and fill your own water glass. And if youd like another glass of wine, you go back to the counter.”
1/3 of the restaurants in the South are like that except no one runs the food to your table, you pick it up when they call out your name.
Funny that they consider this a downgrade in San Fran.
I used to go to a restaurant outside Heidelberg, Germany called "Die Kartoffel".
They bring your meat order to the table on a 500 degree stone tablet and you cook the meat in front of you as you talk with friends and get drunk.
Truly a wonderful place. One of my favorite places when I was stationed in Germany
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