Fine Dining vs. Casual?
In the Globe and Mail's article about the departure of Daniel Boulud, Van food writer Andrew Morrison opines, “I just don’t think Vancouver’s all that into fine dining any more. As a food city, we’ve really come to terms with how we want to dine – which is not formally, not with white tablecloths, it’s not with big balloon crystal wine glasses and 12-course tasting menus. We like to take it easy. We like to relax.”
(On a separate topic, he says the split between Mr. Feenie and the Sidoo [partnership] forced many diners to choose sides with Mr. Feenie, and Lumière was not able to retain its original customer base. But I digressed....)
As proof he apparently offered the statistic that only 10 fine dining places are among the 300 new restos that opened in Vancouver in the last few years. And five of those ten have closed or downscaled to something more casual.
Which, contrarian that I am, suggests that it could also be proof that the fine dining market was oversaturated to begin with.
Curious what others think. Is fine dining over? Stale? Outdated? Unneccessary?
