Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, June 24. 2010

A Maggie's Farm Summer Questionnaire: How often do you dine in restaurants?

We're asking about dinner, not lunch. At Maggie's Farm, we are believers in a weekly date night for couples, while recognizing that in some quarters the social and business dinner whirl can be so taxing that ye olde "quiet supper at home" with radio music (or NPR, of course) can be a special treat.


So please tell us in the comments


1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?


2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?


3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths? Or, if an overseas (from the US) reader, what?



Photo is Peter Luger's "Holy Cow." NYC's best steak house, in Williamburg, Brooklyn. A great place to dine out, and not too pricey.


Addendum: Thanks for all of the replies. A real cross-section. I think folks around where I live dine out more than the average. Got room for more responses...

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 10:07 | Comments (41) | Trackbacks (0)

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Used to be 2-3 times per week in a mid-upper level rest.
Now, maybe once every third week.
Solo, or with a date...but mostly solo.
#1 garrett on 2010-06-24 10:28 (Reply)
We dine out as a family 3-5 nights a week, primarily at chain restaurants like Chili's or Texas Roadhouse. Our church has a Saturday night service so our "official" family dine out night is Saturday after church.

We end up dining out much more than that because there are so many high school sporting events in the evening so we never cook at home on those nights. A few of those nights we eat cheaper at Taco Bell or similar.
#2 Tom Kelly on 2010-06-24 10:35 (Reply)
We do probably once/week at a midrange/ethnic thing, mostly Thai recently but sometimes barbecue. In recent years, we reserve the tablcloth restaurants for occasions, or with friends who like that.
#3 Bird Dog on 2010-06-24 10:59 (Reply)
Like BD, mostly midrange/ethnic Mexican or Thai. Probably averages once a week -- some weeks more, some weeks not at all.

I'll take mine Thai-hot, please.
#4 arcs on 2010-06-24 11:22 (Reply)
If "Dining Out" means the evening meal, then perhaps 3 times per month.

The impetus to dine out may be the case of too busy to have thought about and prepared something at home. When that is the case, if will generally be "spouse" or "family" (brat or brats). We'll typically go to a midrange chain (Boston's, Ruby Tuesday, something similar) for quick, reasonably priced, and dependable. Typically that is with My Better Two-Thirds and one of two brats if they are home.

Sometimes we'll plan and then we'll go higher-end for quality and service and/or "ethnic" (which means Thai 90% of the time). "High-end" with my gang ordinarily means elegant Italian or a good steak place. That is maybe six times a year. That will almost invariably be with friends or both brats.

We probably dine out during trips/travel another 8 or 10 times per year. Normally mid-range chains again.

When all is said and done we probably average, over the course of a year, 48 or so times dining out. Mostly mid-range, almost never greasy spoon low-end, maybe 25% high-end.

You opening an eatery?
#5 Knucklehead (Link) on 2010-06-24 11:29 (Reply)
No. Too much of a headache. Staff is always the issue.
Might like to, tho. I have a friend who has just taken over a restaurant, and we have been talking.
#6 Bird Dog on 2010-06-24 11:50 (Reply)
Because of having to be gluten-free in my eating, that has greatly affected our dining out. We both like steak a lot, but there are not many places in the hip vegetarian college town that we live in.

It tends to be 2x a month at the mid-range places and a lot more if we are traveling.
#7 Deb on 2010-06-24 11:58 (Reply)
About .75 times/week midrange as a family. No chains where we live in Alaska, except McD's, so all independent places. It might be more, but there are only a few places with food that can match what I make at home. If you're into cooking as a hobby, it's pretty easy to outdo most midrange places.
#8 JimS on 2010-06-24 11:59 (Reply)
Dinner: 3-5 times/month.

1-2 times/month w/ family. The rest is when I'm on travel for work.

Except for travel, we eat dinner as a family virtually every night. We try to limit dinners out to keep them as special treats, to maintain our budget, and to demonstrate to our children about budgeting (time and money)
#9 DrTorch on 2010-06-24 12:11 (Reply)
Two to three times per week. I am a working musician and I tend to eat on the run. There are a couple of Italian places near where I live that run Monday and Tuesday specials. There is also a sushi place that does the same on Mondays. There are also a couple of really good Mexican and Peruvian places. Most of the time I go to mom and pop restaurants, but occasionally I'll go to one of the chains like Applebee's or TGI Fridays. Usually I go out with one or two other friends, but once in a while I've been known, when I really need a good mental health day, to book a reservation for one at one of the top steak houses in Washington, DC, and "pamper" myself with a huge Porterhouse, some good scotch, and a nice dry wine to go with the steak. I do like restaurants. It comes from years of being a touring musician, and eating in restaurants three meals a day for over 25 years.
#10 Chip on 2010-06-24 12:12 (Reply)
Well, I'm single again the past three years, with a long commute back home to the farm where active dog needs his exercise. Eating out is a very rare experience now, mostly four or five times a year when out of town family come back for a visit. Anything decent is a half hour drive from the farm anyhow, so it's hard to find the time.

During the vacation week on Cape Cod, every meal is fish or seafood, four nights of fine dining and the other nights (and lunches) at local midpriced joints, clam shacks and the like.
#11 Seppo on 2010-06-24 12:20 (Reply)
I haven't eaten out, not once, in probably ten years.
#12 rhhardin (Link) on 2010-06-24 12:38 (Reply)
Perhaps 6 times a year. Fast food. Can't afford anything more upscale.
#13 feeblemind on 2010-06-24 12:41 (Reply)
Once a week at the club, once a week at wherever we agree on. But our moods tend to mesh, after 26 years of marriage.

Love Thai, BTW. Hot, for sure. So much more interesting than even the best Chinese. Mexican? Well...good ceviche is ok but even at the best places I have frequented I do not find it too exciting.
#14 The B on 2010-06-24 12:48 (Reply)
Dinner - once or maybe twice a week. Mostly oriental and not that smart, but very authentic Japanese or Chinese. Occasionally a nice Italian or French.

Lunch - weekdays - most days at cafes or cheap oriental near client's. Weekend - Dim Sum on a Sunday once a month and Sushi about the same.

Clearly I eat out too much?
#15 NotaSheep (Link) on 2010-06-24 13:03 (Reply)
We get out [to some place like Olive Garden] 3-4 times a year if we're lucky - and that includes the odd relative coming to town and taking us out. Budget is the issue.

We don't fuss about it too much. We have a nice garden and like to cook. Our teenagers are becoming foodies, too, so there's always something interesting in the fridge.
#16 weaver on 2010-06-24 13:17 (Reply)
1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?

0

We eat out at a restaurant about 4 or 5 times a year.

2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?

Usually with family.

3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths? Or, if an overseas (from the US) reader, what?

Chinese buffet or Mexican, probably what you would call mid-range.

I don't really enjoy eating out that much. You're just going to flush it later and I can make it at home for about 1/5 of the cost.

Date nights don't have to cost money to be special, IMHO. The point is the company and conversation, not the money spent. I've had great times sitting in the car with my husband sharing a milk shake, or hanging out at the park tossing rocks in the lake.
My parents used to get up together in the morning before we kids were up and just sit together sharing conversation and coffee.

But if spending money is important to make the evening special, we recommend dessert and coffee as a way of keeping within a budget.

Married since 1982, and my husband spent 20 years in the military as an enlisted man, while I was, and am, a sahm (16 year spread between oldest and youngest children)
#17 deputyheadmistress (Link) on 2010-06-24 14:10 (Reply)
1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?

Maybe once a week.

2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?

Spouse

3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths?

White tablecloth for special occasions. Mostly we go out because we get dinnertime cabin fever. Also, we usually go out to eat foods that are too cumbersome to buy fresh or make properly without extensive additions to our home pantry, i.e. Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, Fresh Seafood, etc...

I can stand the thought of paying premium dollars for Italian and typical American food. We just make it better at home.
#18 Chad (Link) on 2010-06-24 14:27 (Reply)
Sorry, it should be "I can't stand the thought of paying..."
#19 Chad (Link) on 2010-06-24 14:28 (Reply)
1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?

only 5-6 times a year. we live in a rural area with few choices and less if you want quality or style better than what I can do at home. Otherwise we also eat out when we travel to visit.


2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?

From home its mostly when father in law comes to visit. Otherwise it is with family or friends that we are visiting.


3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths? Or, if an overseas (from the US) reader, what?

Mid-range mexican or italian food or semi-cheap burger joint.

I'd love if the Mister thought to do date nights but he's all talk and no action when I bring them up. So I occasionally cook up an extra yummy meal complete with desert and make sure he has several choices from Netflix to pass out on the couch to.
#20 amanda on 2010-06-24 14:34 (Reply)
Used to be more - maybe 2 or 3 times a week. Got boring after a while. Plus, I started to cook. So between my wife and I making meals and having people over, we tend to eat out less. Maybe only 5-10 times a year now, usually for birthdays and such.
#21 Skookumchuk on 2010-06-24 14:50 (Reply)
I ain't tell-in.
#22 jappy on 2010-06-24 15:36 (Reply)
1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?
Two to three times a week.


2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?
Mostly spouse and family. Occasionally friends.


3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths? Or, if an overseas (from the US) reader, what?

Mostly fast food, or midrange local mom and pop restaurants. Occasionally a table cloth restaurant.
#23 Sam on 2010-06-24 15:58 (Reply)
We, my husband and I, eat out once a week, mostly at familiar restaurants we've known for years. It's mid-range restaurants for us, unless it's a birthday or anniversary celebration. Then we go to Brennan's, our town's greatest celebration restaurant. But 'mid-range' can cover a lot of ground, and includes an absolutely great Italian rstaurant fairly nearby, and a special seafood restaurant.

My husband has a fellow professional photograher, a young guy, with whom he is searching for "the perfect hamburger" and a chance to talk images, and the problems of running a specialized business. Generally I like to let them 'have at it' by themselves, since it does men just as much good to have a no-wimmen "meet and talk" as it does us women. They generally do this at noon, and during the winter, our family eat-outs are also done at noon, too, since neither of us drives at night any more. I must admit that I still cook most of our meals because we get ill less often that way.

What is that old saying -- "the family that eats together stays together"?

Marianne
#24 Marianne Matthews on 2010-06-24 16:54 (Reply)
Decades of international business travel to Asia have inhibited Mr W's desire to eat out (much less enter the cabin of an airplane). Now that he is retired, we stay put and eat out only when we venture from our rural perch to an Ikea for everyday wine glasses, Lingonberry based anything, and soul food (I am Swedish) like proper open faced sammies and okay meatballs. I don't miss restaurants - plus I like the fact that I don't have to diet to fit into my smallish clothesies if I stay the heck out of restaurants.
#25 MissyW (Link) on 2010-06-24 17:25 (Reply)
Once long ago when an important personage was in town wanting to eat out in a local eatery, I took him to Bob Evans for lunch where I often stopped for an evening work break.

Outside the door as we entered was a pool of vomit.

"Strictly speaking, we don't know whether the guy was going in or out," I said.

So in we went.
#26 rhhardin (Link) on 2010-06-24 17:46 (Reply)
1. How many times/week do you dine out in restaurants?
Maybe once every two weeks

2. Does it tend to be with spouse, with friends, with family (or alone)?
Not alone

3. Does it tend to be fast food burger and pizza joints, or mid-range burger and/or ethnic joints, or places with tablecloths? Or, if an overseas (from the US) reader, what?
Tablecloths only.
#27 John on 2010-06-24 18:16 (Reply)
1. Three or four times a year. When on the road, much more often, obviously. Also, more times if visiting relatives.

2. Me and my wife, plus our kids and their significant others when they're in the neighborhood.

3. For me (us), fast food or burger joints don't constitute eating out. Most often locally it's a no-tablecloth seafood place. Not the greatest, but decent service, easy parking, and great company (see #2, above).

(bonus answer) for my most recent overseas jaunts, it was C-rations (REFORGER) or MREs (Persian Gulf War).
#28 Dan. on 2010-06-24 19:27 (Reply)
How's that joke go? Nurses aren't comfortable in 4-star restaurants unless they're standing up and wolfing their food down!
#29 Steve in CT on 2010-06-24 20:07 (Reply)
Aboiut once a month, either w/ spouse or maybe one other couple, at either a pub, a bistro or a tablecloth place.

My own cooking is pretty good, and I can do a downright impressive 30 minute meal.
#30 D on 2010-06-24 20:08 (Reply)
BTW, in the Southwest, dinner often refers to the noontime meal, supper to the evening meal. When you are asked for dinner, make sure you know what time of day the meal is.

When I am visiting or being visited, I often eat out, but otherwise not much.
#31 Gringo on 2010-06-24 20:09 (Reply)
I am somewhat amazed at the response to this thread.

How 'bout a related questionaire?

How often to you entertain people in your home? family...friends...

How often are you invited to others for a dinner/party? family... friends...

How often do you find yourself among mostly strangers for dinner?
#32 Knucklehead (Link) on 2010-06-24 21:14 (Reply)
We eat dinner in a restaurant (mid-level) maybe once a month, down from once or twice a week a few years ago. We carry-out dinner perhaps once a week, taking it to the riverboat to enjoy as a picnic as the sun sets. Usually the food we prepare at home tastes better, is fresher and less expensive than when we eat out.
#33 Earth Girl (Link) on 2010-06-24 23:48 (Reply)
Dine out as a family 1x per week (part of our plan to ensure our kids behave in public--and its working... I'd take my 4yr old and 2yr old anywhere (of course consistency at home for table manners is key too)).

And as a couple biweekly, usually fancy dress.
#34 Sean G (Link) on 2010-06-25 01:39 (Reply)
2-3 time per year is more like it. The food and drinks and service is better at my house than anywhere else I've been.

I think it was Marcus Licinius Crassus who said that eating anywhere but your own home is a waste of money. Damn straight.
#35 Clayton Barnett on 2010-06-25 08:49 (Reply)
I could take you to 10 places today that would change your mind.
#35.1 Bird Dog on 2010-06-25 10:23 (Reply)
i go out (by myself usually) to a local mid range small chain pub for happy hour and appetizers once - twice a week. once a month i will meet friends for dinner - places vary, but never lower than midrange. i prefer service and tablecloths - otherwise what is the point of spending my hard earned cash when eating & drinking at home is not only cheaper, but i am a damned good cook.
#36 missred on 2010-06-25 13:43 (Reply)
My wife and I are retired and the kids are gone, so we eat out 3 or 4 times a week. We find as we get older, that we are eating less. So, we look for places that either have smallish meals/portions (a now closed tapas place was a favorite) or will allow us to share a meal. Outback is such a place and, tonight, we are going to a nearby upscale place and will split a meal (one meal, two drinks and, maybe, something sweet = aprox. $50).
We like to eat outside when the Texas weather permits. So we know all the local places with outside areas.
Nothing wrong with burgers, pizza or bar-b-que. New place (we've twice) is BYOB and services classic comfort food (had liver and onions, mashed potatoes with BROWN gravy).
Once in a while, but not often, will go with neighbors or Texas visitors.
#37 TexEd on 2010-06-25 14:52 (Reply)
2-3 times a month after church with friends, rarely otherwise. It's usually at a cheap Chinese buffet place. Our main social life is dinner parties with neighbors, so if we're going to splurge on food that's how we do it.
#38 Texan99 (Link) on 2010-06-25 23:50 (Reply)
We go out 3 times a year. What I send on to go I can feed the crew for a week.
#39 Nye Nestman on 2010-06-28 22:31 (Reply)
Can't afford to eat out, we have a large brood, and have been scrimping for tuition costs.

The cost of dining out doesn't seem to be worth the financial sacrifice to us, I'd rather spend on something we really need, but we have so many great cooks in the family, the home meals are usually good.

Because we dine out so rarely, usually when someone treats us, it's always really special, and we don't take it for granted!
#40 LP on 2010-07-03 13:39 (Reply)

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