August 15, 2006
Chain Reaction
After last year’s WaPo Best Bet winners turned out to include an un-hip number of national chain stores and discount outlets, the organizers made some changes to the categories. The changes were designed to draw out the local spots and independent retailers that locals cherish. Categories like “Neighborhood Spot” and “Vintage/Thrift Store” were positively begging for an increased hipster presence in the poll.
The 2006 Bets are out, and while peppered with Washington-based establishments, many national chains dominate some categories. Even WaPo’s Going Out Gurus neatly distanced themselves from the Fuddruckers (#2 Burgers) and Chipotles (#3 Takeout) that tarnished the winners’ cool factor; they felt compelled to add a sidebar of “Guru’s Favorite Spots” chock full of locals.
This comes on the heels of the Post’s interesting analysis of the Dupont Circle retail corridor in yesterday’s paper. The imminent departure of the independent Third Day garden store prompted the paper to examine the area’s changed demographics. Once a hotbed of local boutiques and shops, with 61 independent retailers in 1991, chain stores are slowly infiltrating and driving out the smaller stores, which now number 39. Is this trend inevitable? Is the increased presence of a national chain in a neighborhood a sign of stability and economic success? Or a sign of retail stagnation and a lack of urbanity? It's time again to ask the question: Do you buy Indie?
Now, we’re not the world’s preeminent statisticians, but doesn’t it strike one as likely that in a popularity contest, ubiquity can trump quality? There may be many folks who really enjoy and prefer a national chain’s products, but convenience and mass production certainly doesn’t guarantee a “Best Bet”. We’re not knocking the fine baristas at Starbucks (#1 Coffee), but is a contest pitting over 50 area outlets of the ‘Bucks against two wee Murky Coffee (#3 Coffee) locations really a fair fight? If they really wanted an objective comparison between Washington’s favorite spots, wouldn’t every Starbucks location have to compete on its own?
Speaking of Starbucks, recently they at the heart of the Seattle Coffee Empire have felt a great disturbance in The Force. The Rebels are organizing: several fans of the unique culture of indie coffeeshops decided to create an online database of the best local shops. The site's creators are fed-up D.C. coffee drinkers, but the site's scope is national. New arrivals and travelers alike will now more easily track down decent local coffee and support independent businesses rather than resort to an easily located chain.
Thanks to Vince at buyindie.net for contributing to this post.
Photo from Murky Coffee by Flickr user furcafe.
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PF Chang's won best Chinese restaurant. Are you f*cking kidding me? Who are these people?
Apparently the WOD and Mt Vernon Trails have sold out and are now chain bike trails…but good news! to the Rock Creek Park is still hip
There may be many folks who really enjoy and prefer a national chain’s products, but convenience and mass production certainly doesn’t guarantee a “Best Bet”.
And locally owned doesn't guarantee superior product either. Five Guys has gone downhill since they started franchising, and they weren't all that great to start with. Yet they consistently rate a Best Bet. Seems like WaPo is taking a cue from the Washingtonian and voting the same mundane eats year in and year out.
As for the proliferation of chains, the fact is that chains are the only businesses with the capital to open in downtown. Rising real estate values cause the mom and pop groceries, boutiques, and restaurants to fold. They can't keep up, the owners jack the rents, and enter the boutique shops and highpriced chains. That's the flipside to gentrification: the cool shops that made people want to live there get priced out.
Everybody wants a used bookstore and a hip used clothes store and a cool coffee shop in their neighborhood. But when real estate prices go through the roof, you can't sell enough books or clothes or coffee to make your rent payments. Blaming chains is like blaming dj nights for "killing" live music. It won't wash.
If they really wanted an objective comparison between Washington’s favorite spots, wouldn’t every Starbucks location have to compete on its own?
Huh? Maybe I'm missing the point here, but I thought the goal was to limit the number of chains on the list, not produce something that would result in the top 10 most-frequented Starbucks in the area.
Aside from its obvious physical and cultural ubiquity, Starbucks' moved recently from individually prepared to pre-podded espresso making for increased product uniformity. The barristas' skills are totally irrelevant. One place differs from another only in comfort, convenience and service efficiency. Buying indie has its merits, but there's no shortage of indie joints serving putrid overpriced espresso.
i agree with wired. I would much rather go to some of the indies..but their prices are just as bad. Maybe if they tried to be more competitive in pricing they could attract more customers. And i definitly believe they could cut the prices some and not fold.
>> Maybe if they tried to be more competitive in pricing they could attract more customers.
How can they be more competitive when their rents are getting raised? Herein lies the problem. Not only are the rents being raised, but most people in DC aren't FROM DC, so of course they will frequent chains more than people who've lived here for the past 20 or so years.
And having that said, DC needs more independent coffeshops. The crowds at Tryst/Open City/Busboys and Poets shows that.
I totally spend way too much money at Harmony Records and Kramerbooks on CT Ave. Don't know if that's helping to preserve the hipster quotient of the 'hood, but, hey, I do what I can.
Seems like WaPo is taking a cue from the Washingtonian and voting the same mundane eats year in and year out.
That'd be 100% correct in a world where the voting wasn't done by readers.
I second what Stone says - more indie coffee places -- especially those that stay open late -- would be AWESOME. Soho is OK, but at night they tend to play the most godawful music, and the place turns into a frigging gay twink/punk daycare center, with a few law-school drones thrown in for spice.
That'd be 100% correct in a world where the voting wasn't done by readers.
Which begs the question, how many WaPo readers read Washingtonian as well? I submit a whole bunch do, hence the similarity in the results.
I'm sorry, but all the chain haters need to chill out a bit. Burger joints like Elevation are good, sometimes great, sometimes even magnificent. But sometimes they blow.
Fuddruckers is always delicious (and rather consistently so) pretty much where ever you happen to be in the world. There is also a comfort in the knowing what to expect that adds to the flavor.
Best Bets are what you make of them. If you've been here long enough, you're not surprised at how they shake out. I normally can find a handful of items that either I hadn't heard of, or I didn't realize were so popular. I guess it's good for the indie shops that make the top ten to be able to put that in their window. Maybe it has a similar effect as putting a AAA sign in a motel.
But if it's going to bother you that Starbucks or Barnes and Nobles won, then I think you're missing the point. When you look at the complete list of all categories, chains make up a small percentage. Just ignore them. It's not like they get a prize for winning.
I'm happy to see Mayorga coffee make it on the list. They are a great local coffee house and even roast thier beans locally. I make sure to buy from them, rather than from *bucks.
"Five Guys has gone downhill since they started franchising, and they weren't all that great to start with..."
Them's fighting words. I can understand someone saying that some of the new franchises aren't up to snuff, but "they weren't all that great to start with"?!? Who's lining your pockets- Ronald? Wendy? The Colonel? Herb?
Feh, I'd rather throw on a pot of Chock Full O' Nuts, smoke a doobie, & watch porn at home any day. Indie cafes are a dreadful bore.
i just want a place that serves a decent sandwich for cheap. I can't find anything in dupont.
Feh, I'd rather throw on a pot of Chock Full O' Nuts, smoke a doobie, & watch porn at home any day. Indie cafes are a dreadful bore.
No way dude! I'd much rather pull a few tubes and stroll over to my neighborhood coffee spot to do some people watching, then go home to rub one out thinking about some of the cuties I saw during my trip out of the house.
hoosthatgirl,
I'm addicted to Potbelly's Italian. PB's a mixed bag though; lots of folks on here don't care for it. 3.99's not bad.
Hoosthatgirl, try Teaism for tasty sandwiches. They aren't $3, but they come in under $7, which seems to be the region's average.
Ann Taylor Loft as best clothing boutique??? I love ATL, but it is no clothing boutique. That one is hilarious.
Keep in mind that most of these voters live in the 'burbs. Not exactly the most stylish people....
Five Guys is great if you like well-done (as in, cooked far too long) burgers that have had all their juices mashed out of them by the cooks. And they've been cooking them that way even before the expansion. They violate rule No. 1 of cooking burgers: touch them as little as possible after they've been placed on the grill.
But you can't beat the giant portions of (pretty solid) fries they give you, tho.
I too like supporting local businesses, but, honestly, Fuddruckers burgers are better than ninety nine percent of the burgers you get in DC. And there's precious little attitude from their staff. Unlike most local DC burger options. So once local outfits actually start serving up decent burgers, at a decent price, with decent service, we can all go there instead of Fuddruckers.
Five Guys - I love the Springfield Five Guys. The downtown Five Guys is not nearly as good. More than once now their buns have been stale and crappy, and the service experience has been less than thrilling. I've NEVER had a bad experience in their suburban locales. But the downtown one, while decent, is just not as good as the rest. Why? Staffing.
Every reader poll should always be disregarded, I have lived in 2 other cities, and no matter how hip the indy paper or mag is, dominos always gets best pizza, and the biggest grocery chain gets best store, and mc Ds gets best burger. it is because suburbs are huge (no dis intended) and the city places, while full and busy, get less vote due to simple logistics, and (dis tongue in cheek intended) slacker apathy. Ignore the polls and understand simple capitalism, mom and pop shops are affected by the rise and falls of the local economy, but the megastores with the megamediocre stuff take and give when needed as economys fluctuate around the country and the globe, and as unregulated capitalism works, eventually one person owns it all. I don't like it, but have no better idea, giving up liberated me.
Thanks for the mention, DCist-orati.
The good news, perhaps the "silver lining" even, is that the results of polls like Wa-Po's Be-Be are in the eye of the beholder.
True discovery doesn't come from visiting the #1's from an online reader poll. However, those lists can help equip many folks with lists of places they otherwise might never seek out. The key word is "lists." Hopefully people will make it past #1 ("#1" is, after all, the world's most worshipped deity).
What I always find fascinating about these polls is how while P.F. Chang's wins "Best Chinese," The Inn at Little Washington can win "Most Romantic." That's like saying that "Capital File" is Washington's most read periodical. WTF? NONE OF THESE F*CKERS HAVE BEEN TO THE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON!!! No mere mortal can afford that sh*t!
Next year, I hope they have "Best Hotel" so the Lincoln Bedroom will get some love.
Next year, I hope they have "Best Hotel" so the Lincoln Bedroom will get some love.
LOL.
One problem with smalltime Indie stores is just that -- they're *small*. If I were into books on the NYT bestseller list or hawked on Oprah, I fully agree that buying them at Kramerbooks or Olssons would be the right thing to do. But if your tastes are a bit more obscure, your chances of finding the books you are looking for are rather better at a chain. Heck, often I find myself even bypassing the brick-and-mortar chains and just ordering from Amazon (and not just for the discount).
Just how low does one's taste threshold have to be to think that Fuddrucker's makes a good burger? They don't make a good burger. They make an adequate burger. They make a burger that is edible, and the only reason they are edible is that the other choices are so poor.
But that's rather the problem with chains, and why their presence on ANY list of best bets is bad news: chains, which rely on Lowest Common Denominator product, lower the standards and expectations of an entire area. It's gotten so we don't even know what good food tastes like anymore.
Robis: Perhaps you can recommend a burger joint instead of just dissing a popular chain. But I guess actually offering a suggestion would open you up for criticism.
The best burger in the world comes from Chas. Kincaid's Gro. Market in Fort Worth, Texas; the best burger I've had in DC was from Five Guys in Georgetown.
Don't sleep on the burgers served at the clubhouse down at Hains Point, very tasty!
I had a shockingly good burger at the Johnny Rocket's in Dupont a couple of weeks ago (I'm so embarrassed to be admitting this.....)
Oh, and as to Kramerbooks - I find they have a really good selection of the stuff I'm most interested in (which, granted, is mostly politics/economic development-related, new fiction, or travel.)
"But that's rather the problem with chains, and why their presence on ANY list of best bets is bad news: chains, which rely on Lowest Common Denominator product, lower the standards and expectations of an entire area. It's gotten so we don't even know what good food tastes like anymore."
I'm sorry, but it's not like there was this magical time before chains where there were all these wonderful indie-restaurants that served up gourmet food for affordable prices. Take coffee shops for instance. Before Starbucks, there weren't any shops exclusively dedicated to coffee (well outside of places like San Fran or Greenwich Village, at least). If you wanted coffee, you bought it at a diner, and it probably sucked. Starbucks created the neo-coffee house market. All those great places like Murky Coffee probably wouldn't exist if Starbucks hadn't been as successful as it's been.
And I don't know what you consider a great burger, but I'd be willing to bet that places like Fudruckers forces indie burger joints to improve, rather than degrade, the quality of their product.
Who fills out these polls anyway? I have a feeling that most people who support "indie" stores don't give a f--- what the WaPo says about where to shop and where to drink coffee.
Thanks for making that point, Reid. I remember one (one) specialty coffee shop when I was growing up, and they had mostly flavored coffees, nothing particularly good. Like Starbucks or not, but they did raise the bar.
"Robis: Perhaps you can recommend a burger joint instead of just dissing a popular chain. But I guess actually offering a suggestion would open you up for criticism."
Hey, I call it as I see it. I'm not under any obligation to recommend a burger joint just because I think Fuddruckers is highly overrated. But I'll tell you, Elite on 17th had a really good burger, before they closed down. It was juicy, fresh, and the service was excellent.
"I'm sorry, but it's not like there was this magical time before chains where there were all these wonderful indie-restaurants that served up gourmet food for affordable prices."
Um, actually, before chains there were indeed places that you might call "indie" (though that term is meaningless without serving as a reaction to the chain). Starbuck's did not invent the coffeehouse. Borders did not invent the bookstore. Chain restaurants did not invent the restaurant.
Non-chains do not exist because chains blazed a path before them.
"And I don't know what you consider a great burger, but I'd be willing to bet that places like Fudruckers forces indie burger joints to improve, rather than degrade, the quality of their product."
That's a bet you'd lose. Because places like Fuddruckers can buy their ingredients in bulk, can dedicate more capital to advertising and brand recognition, and shore up less successful locations with the profits form more successful ones, they can price out the local places. The local places have to lower the quality of their ingredients to compete, or close up altogether, They just can't compete with the capital power of a chain.
Hey, this thread totally reminded me of something that's been bugging me for a while:
Did there used to be a crappy ghetto cafeteria/diner on G St. between 13th & 14th that billed itself as having "DC's Best Burger"? Before I lived in the city (maybe 5 years ago) I came here for a conference and ate there. Now I don't see the place, and I actually think it's turned into my office building!
Just askin'. Anybody?
"places like Fuddruckers can buy their ingredients in bulk, can dedicate more capital to advertising and brand recognition, and shore up less successful locations with the profits form more successful ones, they can price out the local places. The local places have to lower the quality of their ingredients to compete, or close up altogether, They just can't compete with the capital power of a chain."
Exactly. And therein lies the problem. How in the world can indies compete? They have to be so amazing and connect to so many loyal customers and just have a lot of luck. Politics and Prose does well. Kramerbooks does well. But for every success, there's all the little Indies that people like, may think are charming but never shop in because everything can be found cheaper at a chain store. I hate the look of all the chain stores in Dupont too, but I'm just as guilty as everyone else because I shop and eat in these places and keep them open.
You're remembering correctly, Jason. I think that they had the "Best Burger" sign up while they were under the name G Street Grille, or something similar. I worked around the corner for four years (1996-2000), and there were at least two, if not three different establishments at that address during that time. They were on the same block as the porn 'n' variety stoe that was also a pretty extensive headshop until Ashcroft started cracking down in 2001 or so. I used to think it was so funny that you could buy bongs and pipes and "hide your stash" gear just two or three blocks from the White House.
As for the claim, it basically wasn't true, although the place had good quality, fairly basic takeout at quite reasonable prices. Their burgers were fine, but nothing about them made them stand out as "the best," in my mind.
To me, the real issue is not whether indies can compete, or whether chains offer superior product or value. These polls and their output should reflect the best a particular city has to offer. There's nothing "Washington" about Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or P.F. Chang's. Saying Anne Taylor Loft is the best place to buy women's clothing tells you nothing about DC. National chains should not even be eligable for such contests. Whether Starbucks is the best place in the metropolitan area to grab a cup of coffee is not even germane. These lists should speak to the local flavor.
I think part of the problem may be with how the Post represents their list - as "best bets," rather than "best of DC." Your best bet for a good hamburger may well be Fuddrucker's - they're a national chain and their burgers should taste the same no matter where you happen to buy them. It's a pretty good bet you're going to get a particular kind of burger when you patronize them. But are their burgers the best Washington has to offer? The question is ridiculous on its face, and I think the issue is more than mere semantics. You want the best burger Washington has to offer, you go to the best local burger joint.