Same Difference

On New Year's Eve we had the extremely original and exclusive idea to have Asian food for dinner. Of course, I'm kidding as everyone had this idea. I don't know what it is but there is something about the prospect of ringing in a New Year that causes everyone on the planet to want some fried rice. As you would imagine this creates a lot something of a logjam because I don't care how ethnically diverse your town is there are only going to be so many Chinese food restaurants. Making it particularly bad for us is that the craving for Chinese food came late in the afternoon, long after most people had placed their orders. (According to one of my sisters, the place near her demands that you place your order (and pay for it) by December 27th and then they will tell you what time you can come and pick it up.) Since I don't plan my meals out that far ahead and don't normally order Asian food on New Year's, we were way behind the curve. I knew we were in trouble when we called the first place, which is supposed to be the hot new Chinese food restaurant, and all I got was a busy signal. I must have dialed for a solid five minutes before I finally got through, at which point I was told it was going to be at least an hour before our food would be ready for pick-up (I didn't ask about delivery, as I assume it would arrive in 2014). I certainly wasn't about to wait that long for my chicken and broccoli, so we decided to call the place we normally go for our Chinese food. Sure, the service isn't quite as friendly but when you are as hungry as we were in that moment you can overlook bad customer service.

First off, they picked up on the second or third ring, which was a good sign. Also, they would have our food ready in half the time which was music to my ears. They weren't messing around about certain things though (no combination plates and they were only offering sides in one size) but when you are as late to the game as we were you are in no position to complain. With one order down now it was time to track down some Thai food. (Yeah, we're those people.) Once again we started off by calling the place which is supposed to have the best Thai food in town but couldn't get an answer. Hell, we couldn't even get a voicemail. Since it is around the corner we decided it would probably be easier to just drive down, place the order and wait. When we got there we discovered why they weren't answering the phone and that is because that would have taken valuable time that, frankly, they didn't have. The place was packed with every chair taken and a line out the door. We never got close enough to ask the girl behind the counter but heard through the grapevine it also would have taken an hour for our one small dish to be ready, so we decided to forget it. Taking a stab in the dark we decided to swing by the second Thai place near the center of town. What a difference. It was so quiet that we almost thought it was closed. We walked in, placed the order, could have had our choice of places to sit while it was put together and then we left 15 minutes later with more than enough time to go and get the rest of the food from the Chinese place. The atmospheres in the two establishments couldn't have been more different.

After that night I couldn't help but think about the fact that this is why every town in America, no matter how small, has two of everything and why one is always seen as the better of the two. Think about it - it doesn't matter how obscure the product or service you need at that moment, chances are really good that you will have at least two options to have that service filled for you. However, chances are even better that you will only want to go to one of those places because that is the "good" place. What I can't figure out is how one place gets the reputation as the good and trendy place because most of the time the difference in quality is minuscule. I'm not an expert on Thai food by any stretch of the imagination but according to reports the food we got from the second, far less popular Thai food restaurant was just fine. Award winning? Probably not - but the packed place isn't exactly on the cover of Thai Food Monthly either. (I assume that is a real magazine.) I can only assume this all has to do with word-of-mouth advertising and timing. When you are talking about small, local businesses like this the only way people are going to know you even exist is if someone comes in, has a good time and tells all their friends. Even bad reviews, which normally would be enough to kill a small business, never seem all that harsh when you are talking about a mom-and-pop store which is just getting off the ground because everyone seems to give them a something of a grace period when the first open their doors. So by the time the second store opens there is almost nothing they can do to shake their label of being the poorer option even if their product is just as good.

Now, if we were looking at this objectively we would say that the charitable course of action would be to tell everyone to run out and go to the "bad" restaurant because if the food is just as good but the wait is less than it should probably be seen as the better option. Of course the danger in this is that if too many people take this advice suddenly that will be the place with the hour wait for a table. So, it becomes a question of keeping it to yourself but risking that the store won't get enough business to stay open or telling everyone about your wonderful experience and risk losing your secret spot. (As you can see, I went with option B, but considering New Year's was the first time I had ever order Thai food I am not too worried about one Thai place prevailing over the other as I have no dog in that fight.) The other reason that I am only too happy to share this knowledge is that I know this transition is probably bound to happen anyway. Reputations for businesses tend to be cyclical, no matter the industry. I remember when I was growing up the Dedham movie theater was the best because it had the most screen. But, over time the place got a little run-down and the crowd got a little rough, so when a new theater opened in Randolph everyone went there. After a couple years they tore down the Dedham theaters and built a brand-new multiplex in its place, so it is once again the cool place to see a movie but I am sure that one day it will be the bad theater once again. So maybe there is no right answer when it comes to trying figuring out whether you should go to the "good" business or the "bad" one, just be happy that most towns have options. The biggest thing I want you to take from this post is that next New Year's Eve remind me to make my dinner plans a few days in advance.