HFF Does LA 2: The Quickening

I've found myself back in LA again, this time for a wedding. I decided to keep it cheap from a food standpoint a splurge on lodging, but some new observations about the LA dining scene.

First, I'd like to point out Michael Bauer's somewhat well-observed article about his trip to LA. He pointed out what's the hallmark of LA versus SF dining: service and execution. Much more money has gone into the design of restaurants, perhaps to the point of excess, perhaps not. But there's a definite willingness in the Bay Area (especially Berkeley and Oakland) to pay three star prices in one or two star decor. The destination quality of restaurants is absolutely there too. When you go out to eat nice in LA, you're making an excursion of it. You're piling in the Hummer and going to culinary Disneyland.

Another difference that he did not point out, but is an offshoot of that service quality is:

We cram people into restaurants like sardines in this fucking town.

This fucking town being San Francisco.

We've all sat down at those restaurants where the host has to pull the table out of your way and then locks and loads you in to the banquette. This is a hallmark of Bay Area (and from what I'm told, New York) dining. Back the seats in, do as many covers as possible, etc.

I'm sure this is largely a product of much higher property prices, higher rents, etc. But it's also a matter of attitude toward the customer.

We're willing to forgo comfort for the quality of our food. Diners in LA aren't. I went into Table 8 in Hollywood and noticed that they could've rearranged the restaurant and probably added 20% more seats and still have the seating be spacious by SF standards. The server there informed me that if a party of two doesn't get their corner booth with enough room for 6 they raise a serious stink. When paying LA prices, good food is a given, comfort and ease (and the scene) is what brings people back.

But I guess once you factor in two people, their laptops, smartphones, notebooks, and shooting scripts, that's at least six people worth of stuff right there.

So what should we do about this phenomenon then? I don't really care. I'm not big on space. As long as I have enough room to eat and I can get up to go the bathroom without tea-bagging the person next to me, I'm fine with a restaurant.

But maybe we could learn something about LA's restaurant--maybe you can make money and still let your customers have room for their pirate hats.

Oh yeah, the few bites of food I had at Table 8 were excellent, for what it's worth.