chains, chains, chains

[Carbonated_Brains]

There's a place in Brantford, Ontario that makes a back bacon sandwich that you would kill your family for.

The bacon comes from a pig farm down the road, and it is the sweetest, most tender pork you can possibly imagine. Raised the old way, not the same shitty pork you find in supermarkets now that is "white" and flavourless for marketing purposes...

Six or seven bucks, and you get two inches thick of the stuff. I've driven to Brantford explicitly for that damn sandwich.

And Waterloo, there's a Greek place that does things the old fashioned way, with the best gyros you will ever eat. Two for five bucks. Homemade tzatziki, shit, makes you want to live in the restaurant. I chat soccer with the owner all the time.

And I went to Harveys the other day. They've gotten rid of the "Big Harv", which was a slab of decent beef on an egg bun, because it took more than the maximum 2 moments or whatever they deemed was most economical for burger cooking. Everything you buy is weighed, proportioned, prepackaged, soaked in grease, and prepared by a dude who hates his job. A chain restaurant is (with few exceptions) nothing more than the precedent for automated dinner vending machines.

I want to eat at a place where, if I slap the owner with a massive tip and tell him I just ate the best Goddamn sandwich of my whole life, it'll make his day, and he'll remember me next time.

I'm glad the chains are so popular, I really am. It keeps the ruffage out of the really good joints.

[dar512]

Champaign's not that bad. You just need to get off of Mattis. Every town has its chain restaurant row. There's lots to do in Champaign. Lots of neat places right around the college for the young and single. If you have kids, check out the castle park - not the official name, but what everyone calls it.

What takes you to Champaign?

[melidasaur]

Originally Posted by dar512

Champaign's not that bad. You just need to get off of Mattis. Every town has its chain restaurant row. There's lots to do in Champaign. Lots of neat places right around the college for the young and single. If you have kids, check out the castle park - not the official name, but what everyone calls it.

What takes you to Champaign?

My husband is going to be a post-doc at UofI and I'm going to be an unemployed lawyer amongst the chains... Champaign isn't that bad, but it's not the best place for someone who is a city person . Oh well, it's just a 2 year stint and chicago is close enough that I can get away.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by melidasaur

it's not the best place for someone who is a city person .

A couple of years in Champaign and you won't want to leave. -- Aside from the lack of jobs, that is.

Originally Posted by melidasaur

My husband is going to be a post-doc at UofI and I'm going to be an unemployed lawyer amongst the chains... Oh well, it's just a 2 year stint and chicago is close enough that I can get away.

Yeah. We were good friends with another couple doing something similar. He had a law degree and had passed the bar. Then decided to go back for an advanced degree in ... trombone.

Ok. Maybe not that similar.

[melidasaur]

As of right now, I'm not even going to bother with the bar exam - it's an expensive investment for such a short time in a state - I'd rather have the money to spend at IKEA .

I'm thinking about getting my LLM in Intellectual Property Law from John Marshall in Chicago, so I could be looking at a daily 2 hour commute.

I'll want to leave Champaign... I was never a big fan of U of I - it has an ugly campus and I hate that nasty orange. :p