I don’t eat out much, maybe three or four meals a week total. In every place I’ve lived I have had a stable of restaurants that I patronize, usually no more than three or four core restaurants and then a second tier for cravings for a particular type of food or a place to go when I have visitors. Every few weeks, though, I eat at some new place. Maybe I walked or drove past it and was curious. Maybe someone told me about it. Maybe I did a search on Google Maps and it appeared in the results. This practice is a small way of continuing to expand my horizons even while remaining within my established comfort zone much of the time.

I have made two such visits in the last three weeks, both bolstered by the presence of family members to provide conversation through the meals. These two experiences offered typical results. The first place had very good food. It was a tad on the expensive side (seafood almost always is) and got loud as it filled up, but it was the sort of place that I may revisit for a late lunch or an early dinner. It doesn’t crack my core rotation, but it will find a place in the second tier. The second place, though, will not. It was a Sunday night so the place was quiet. The drink I had was very good and others enjoyed theirs also. But the food just wasn’t good enough. I ordered shrimp and grits, a Southern standard if ever there were one. That dish hardly even compared to the shrimp and grits I had at more than one restaurant in Charleston back in the fall, so that is that. It may be harsh, but new restaurants rarely get more than one audition for me. There are simply too many of them to try.