This is an outstanding idea.
I went to a bar like this in Brooklyn. It was decorated like the outside of a trailer park, complete with little trailers that were dining booths. There were strings of lights for ambient lighting and the tables had camping lamps.
The rest of the furniture was lawn chairs and folding tables, and they served hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad, standard picnic fare.
Honestly, that sounds like some refreshing fun. Have the cook with a big grill out front, and putting in the order is just chatting with them.
“Hey, bud, you want a burger, hot dog, steak, or some of this brisket I been smoking since this morning? Want something to drink? There’s beer and soda in the cooler, or we got tap water. The little cooler has juice for the little’uns.”
And then have a cashier keep track of what they had, conveyor-belt sushi style. The cook chats with whoever is standing around drinking a beer with them (and is drinking beers or soda or whatever all shift), and everything gets served on paper plates. And the tables are all those wooden picnic tables with cheap plastic tablecloths.
And those who are eating there are encouraged to stand around and chat with other people as well (if they want). Just make the whole thing like a backyard barbecue with your neighbor Hank.
And hire nothing but retired men and women working part time as the cooks. Nothing but grill daddies and mommies, working just for some extra cash and the fun of barbecuing. I would take that job when I retired in an instant.
Edit: better yet, make it habachi-style, where there’s a grill daddy/mommy for every group or two, set up like a park barbecue. I love this and want to go to one or work at one now.
I want to open it overseas! Export some actual American culture.
I also want to have special football nights where we put the game on and do snack food appetizers. Pigs in a blanket, a couple crackpots of little smokies, chips and dip. There’s a big sign out front that says when we offer tea we mean southern style sweet tea, so please ask for unsweetened if that’s what you want!
So many ways this could be done right.
I would take that job when I retired in an instant
You won’t have to get a job when you retire if you have this kind of good ideas
For some context, I am in the military and will be retiring in five years at the age of 47. So I won’t need to work, but I want to find fun work that I want to do after. I think I’m the type that will wither and die within a year of retiring from any work. I’m not self-motivated enough to create work for myself, and I need to be doing something or I’ll sleep 18 hours a day and feel useless the rest of the time. I need a schedule, and I need someone else to make it.
Or better yet, please ship authentic texmex anywhere outside of the us thanks. I am dying.
You can get good Texmex pretty much anywhere with with a hispanic population. Won’t be as cheap as the South but still. There’s a couple spots near me in the PNW that set up sketchy pop-ups on the sidewalk after dark but they got dope tacos al pastor and they are always busy.
Have the full experience with Accent and flags. It might sell.
I think the full experience would be children running around with the dirtiest faces you’ve ever seen.
Your uncle getting in trouble with the park ranger for feeding the seagulls again.
One of your cousins brought their new girlfriend to the event and are for some reason fighting in the parking lot
Your aunt brought her Rottweiler who barks and snaps at all the families passing by
I grew up in Florida
I was dragged to a country western bar in Japan so, it’s not impossible?
I’d love to go to a bar like that in Japan purely to judge the authenticity.
I went to one in a small town in Japan years ago. It was actually really adorable, the owner LOVED that I was from California
There was (maybe still is?) a lesbian country and western bar in West Hollywood, CA.
Went in by mistake once.
I went to a western restaurant in Japan that was “stereotypical USA” themed and there was mainly kitschy shit all over the place like advertising memorabilia (stuff m&m character statues) and of course american flag themed stuff (but iirc no actual flag)
It was a long time ago but I remember the menu was like burgers, hotdogs, mac and cheese, etc and the food was super mid. Main thing I do remember was the mac and cheese was 100% kraft dinner which was so disappointing. the burger was also weak which is inexcusable because japan has serious burger game
Honestly, that kinda sounds like the average American diner experience. Not bad, not good, just okay. Granted, a small hole-in-the-wall or independent diner that’s been around forever will almost certainly be better; but when it comes to your average American diner (like IHOP, Denny’s, etc) that sounds about right.
If it was a chain and had free refills at a drink bar, it might have been Johnathon’s https://www.skylark.co.jp/en/jonathan/menu/index.html
There are a bunch of other one-off places as well.
No it was a small hole in the wall place in (I think) kyoto that had a single employee and like 4 tables. The walls were literally covered in Americana shit but heavy on the advertising slant (which is pretty definitive of american culture tbh)
It did have drink bar though, though not nearly as much selection what you’d see at a family diner type place or karaoke
Burgers come from Hamburg, Germany, hot dogs come from Frankfurt, Germany, macaroni and cheese come from Rome, Italy.
yeah no shit, america is a melting pot and it’s food culture is an amalgamation of foods from other cultures
And frankly some aspects of most of those are spurious. The origin of the hamburger is debatable mainly because before america it was (probably) just a mince patty served with sauce, much closer to what japan serves as hambagu/ハンバーグ. It likely wasn’t until it came through shipping ports to america that it was served on bread, ground instead of minced (though this was likely a function of the era), and eventually over time evolved to the modern version of what we consider a “hamburger”
Mac and cheese actually goes back to medieval england and was closer to a lasagna. The extruded version is also probably england, or possibly france. Unless you’re simply attributing dried pasta, which is probably an italian invention, but may be arabic
Frankfurter is german but the modern hotdog is american and debatably the idea of serving it in a bun is an american invention, which again goes back to the hamburger and the insanity of prior to america people struggle to combine meat and bread
In closing I bet you’re fun at parties. Also while america sucks at so many things we definitely make the best burgers in the world, hands down
Totally agree with you
The Hamburger they’re referring to is a Hamburg steak, which is a grilled and gravy-topped plate version of Steak Tartar, a rare beef dish that’s a French version of … a Tartar chopped beef dish. It’s all versions of something else and they change each time. The American change to grilling, buns, and a handheld version isn’t any less than the German or French, IMHO
Same for “Frankfurters”, they’re pork, lamb intestine, boiled, and only served on a plate. But American hot dogs historically are kosher beef, spiced more heavily, are typically grilled, and absolutely are served on specialized buns developed for them.
This is typical for American food inventions, a rejection of any updates or improvements.
They have authentic American food all over the world.
It’s called McDonalds and its authenticity highly processed and commercialised. Even prepared by children to give it that true American experience.
MERKA BAAAHD
I literally emigrated because it’s so bad and I don’t talk like this. If you want to talk shit on America I’m right there with you, but if you’re going to pretend our food sucks you’re not invited to the cookup.
America is a big place. There’s some good food, but a lot of the food people eat does suck. The entire midwest or god forbid you live in one of those highway stops where your only options are fast food chains or a fast-casual chain.
McDonalds, Starbucks, and Dominoes exist because people buy that shit.
You know you can cook for your self, right? And cook outs and potlucks still exist.
Where do you live now and how did you manage to escape? Asking for a friend.
Honestly just born a dual citizen, hardest part has been keeping my US job and calling in to west coast businesses in my evenings.
As for the destination, just the UK. Been here three years now, and still just barely getting used to it. I didn’t fit in in America either so I might as well not fit in somewhere better.
If you’ve got a college degree you can pretty easily teach English in Japan for peanuts (though still more than the minimum wage offered in 20 US states).
Listen to this stupid clown talk.
not for this guy. You want authentic American food? Leave your house at 8pm…AM!!!, Google “restaurant”, find a small diner.
Go in, order breakfast, two eggs, sausage patties, a southern biscuit, gravy, and get a pancake while you’re there.
You’ll leave feeling like someone hugged you and everything will be ok, and all you wanted to do was eat breakfast.
Are you crying?
Hug it out, man. Come here. It’s ok.
