566120 Mon Oct 20 12:13:16 -0700 2008 0 29 Not About Food 0 4116505 In a recent post on the South Board concerning our culinary adventures in Nashville and environs, I neglected to mention one thing we observed: the big empty gap between mainstream, everyday eateries and the Fine Dining establishments there. Seems to me we were paying either $10-$15 apiece for our meals or $50 and up, with nothing really in between. Granted, we did not go to some of our old haunts, and I'd imagine that you can still get a decent meal at, say, Sunset Grill for around $25. But we were experiencing a phenomenon that we had not expected: paying considerably more for the same level of food in Nashville than we do in LA! Food in SoCal is supposed to be so much higher on the average than in most of the country, and to a certain extent we've found it so. Still, there is no shortage of nice white-tablecloth establishments in LA County whose entrées are all under $30, but in many of the Nashville places we visited that's where they STARTED. I'm wondering how much of this might be due to the relative costs of high-end ingredients, such as seafood and certain of the fancier meats and vegetables, and how much due to labor costs? We've heard Tony Bourdain, on his book-tour visits to Pasadena, rant about how grossly underpaid the average restaurant worker is here, often being forced to hold down two jobs just to pay the rent, and I'm sure it's true that those ridiculously cheap meals we enjoy in the Asian restaurants of the San Gabriel Valley are at the expense of poorly-paid cooks and cleanup guys. I just don't know how much better off, if any, the help is in Nashville. I'm also wondering how much might also (or otherwise) be due to a simple lack of price competition. Anyone want to comment on this? Mon Oct 20 12:13:16 -0700 2008 11478 Will Owen