I watched S1:E1 just the other day (for the first time).

It didn't strike me as something in which I want to invest time, even with the promise of lots of Chicago landmark and music references.

I find myself increasingly drawn to works of non-fiction, which may explain my lack of enthusiasm for this, even while having some restaurant experience a looooong time ago.

Why would you do this to a Pequod pizza?

jeff fox wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2024 9:55 am

tallchris wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2024 12:17 pm Is Avec a total pain in the ass to go to since it was in The Bear? Always loved going midday and being able to get a bar seat and plow through a serving of the dates.

Every single restaurant in Chicago that isn't a beef stand or a taqueria is a total fucking pain in the ass. And even some beef stands/taquerias are as well. It's shitty and depressing what a miserable experience eating at a restaurant has become. Bullshit rockstar chefs and narcissistic servers. Screamingly loud dining rooms with tables that are crammed together. People live streaming their meals. An entree will have a long list of delicious ingredients, but it turns out those foraged mushrooms are just an ingredient in the single 2mL drop of puree that they drip onto your plate. No thank you. This dumb show reflects everything I hate about 'foodie culture'.

AMEN!

Did not work for me. Found it self-conscious and a bit precious. Some verisimilitude about kitchen work, but so what.

Have seen much praise for the acting, but it felt like I was watching a bunch of people doing impressions of their favourite Scorsese characters. I grew weary.

I have never seen the show but did work at a voice production studio in that office building across the street from Mr Beef about 20 years ago. Ate there all the time. Also ate a lot at the Green Door Tavern at the end of the block. Also the Ho Jo and the Ohio House and Club Lago and Reza's and Gene and Georgetti. That hood was good for great lunch back there at the turn of the century.

Thank you.

I think internet foodie assholes have triggered a decline in food quality across the board.

PASTA wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:57 pm

jeff fox wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2024 9:55 am

tallchris wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2024 12:17 pm Is Avec a total pain in the ass to go to since it was in The Bear? Always loved going midday and being able to get a bar seat and plow through a serving of the dates.

Every single restaurant in Chicago that isn't a beef stand or a taqueria is a total fucking pain in the ass. And even some beef stands/taquerias are as well. It's shitty and depressing what a miserable experience eating at a restaurant has become. Bullshit rockstar chefs and narcissistic servers. Screamingly loud dining rooms with tables that are crammed together. People live streaming their meals. An entree will have a long list of delicious ingredients, but it turns out those foraged mushrooms are just an ingredient in the single 2mL drop of puree that they drip onto your plate. No thank you. This dumb show reflects everything I hate about 'foodie culture'.

AMEN!

Not to derail this thread, but going out in Chicago has become more of a chore than I like. My patience for lines, reservations, and especially unpredictability of what I'll end up with has led me back to mostly old haunts. I'm sure it's mostly on me and my old self. I did go to Avec about a year ago for lunch with a reservation. It was lovely as ever.

I don't know when Bavette's became such a shitshow. Now Armitage Alehouse is the rage - we had these places, called Maude's Liquor Bar and Owen and Engine, that were relatively easy to sit down impromptu, but those days are long gone. (yells at cloud). I need to reboot because I'm sure I'm missing a lot of great food.

Anyway, the Bear. Just loved most everything about season one. The love story was so shoehorned in and unrealistic that it ruined part of season two, but the family dinner and Copenhagen episodes were spectacular. There's also a scene where Richie is practicing hosting in the basement and is almost crying and tells Carmy something like "This is all I have, and if I can't figure this out I do not know what I am going to do". A person who has done one thing for a long time while he sabotaged himself and watched his support system peel away. A common but devastating story and the guy who plays him nails it.

I have not started season three and this discussion is not helping matters.

joelb wrote: Tue Apr 01, 2025 1:08 pm

PASTA wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:57 pm

jeff fox wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2024 9:55 am

Every single restaurant in Chicago that isn't a beef stand or a taqueria is a total fucking pain in the ass. And even some beef stands/taquerias are as well. It's shitty and depressing what a miserable experience eating at a restaurant has become. Bullshit rockstar chefs and narcissistic servers. Screamingly loud dining rooms with tables that are crammed together. People live streaming their meals. An entree will have a long list of delicious ingredients, but it turns out those foraged mushrooms are just an ingredient in the single 2mL drop of puree that they drip onto your plate. No thank you. This dumb show reflects everything I hate about 'foodie culture'.

AMEN!

Not to derail this thread...

Oh my sweet summer child, derail away, that's why we are here.

It's pretty good.

The guy who plays Richie is good, Ayo Edebiri is good, the lead guy is good.
Jamie Lee Curtis is great.
Gloria is good.
Marcus is great.
The doofuses get old but they're doofuses so maybe it's method. Regardless, who cares.
The sister is fine. Her husband is perfect, exactly milquetoast enough.
The uncle is good.

The writing is pretty good. It's funny. The xmas ep at the house was great. The more abstract eps in season 3 were very good.

The love interest stuff didn't really work. The girlfriend is dull but also underwritten so I'm not blaming her really.

The whole conceit that the beef shack sucks and the uptight 'straunt rocks is fucked, but it's par for the course, and there are some tells (joel whatsisname's character) that maybe the Michelin path will be ditched for something that isn't dumb.

Conversely, I somehow thought the Oh Wow Fine Dining is a Whole Thing episode with Richie seeing The Light was oddly touching, but only b/c it was him and Olivia Colman who kicks ass.

There's a point north of beef shack (not in terms of enjoyment level, just variety and refinement) and south of way-too-fucking-clean that Chicago really nails.
Purple Pig, avec, Xoco, Tenjin, Hopleaf.
It's not my show, but I'd like it to be more about that kind of a place.
Where the tension and energy is interpersonal or about how good the food is, rather than execution--which is completely who-fucking-cares territory unless it's watching Jacques Pepin cut vegetables.

Also there's a load of Chicago music they aren't using in the show and there's too much REM. Though I do admire the stick-to-itiveness of it, i suppose.

New season features Shellac over credits in one episode.
The season is okay. The abundant use of music and montages gets a bit irritating.