I’m recuperating from a whirlwind weekend of College graduations and packing up and moving my son back to Rockland. It has been an amazing four years for him at college, I have seen him grow and become a young man ready to take on the next set of challenges. But, I also saw not only in his face but in the faces of his friends, that look of uncertainty, as that inevitable monster “Change” entered their lives. It is true that the only constant in the universe is change. We know this and yet each time we are confronted with it we are also reluctant to embrace it and dive into the unknown. Some handle change better than others and to those select few I applaud you. Resiliency is the key for survival in this world, without it our ancestors would have perished long ago.
Now you may be asking yourself,”what does all this talk of change have to do with food?” Honestly, I’m so glad you asked! Recently a few of my favorite restaurants have gone out of business or they have changed in order to save a few dollars. The Chip Shop which was my favorite English Pub style restaurant had to close its doors in Brooklyn because their lease had run out and the landlord was going to double their rent to over $18,000 a month, that’s a lot of fish -n -chips! In cases like this the only way to survive is to close your doors and move onto the next thing in your life. The Hard Wok Buffett has made many changes in the last months and I’m not so sure for the better. In an earlier post of what makes a restaurant great, I touted the Hard Wok’s exceptional attention to their customers and the quality of their food. This still remains a great selling point for them, but they have also changed a few things on their lunch menu. One of the changes has to do with my favorite dish, the hot pepper chicken. Over the last twenty years it has changed only once and that change was for the best in my opinion. They switched from a sticky sweet sauce to real fresh hot peppers that were cooked along with the chicken. That made for a beautiful blend of spice and color with a fresh crunch in the peppers. Now they have replaced the fresh peppers with the little red dried ones you might find in General Tso’s chicken. They are spicy but you have to chew on them to get the heat, and really who likes chewing on an old dried chili? What I wished they would do is soak the peppers overnight in water then put them in a blender with a little oil and garlic and make a paste that gets cooked onto the chicken. The second change is another of my favorites, the tea. They changed from an old school oolong , that you see in a lot of Chinatown restaurants to a light jasmine black tea.They also stopped using the old silver teapots with the small Chinese teacups. They now charge 50 cents for a large plastic cup of tea , with free refills. This change I can handle as the jasmine is also a nice flavor to compliment the food, but for die hard fans of oolong the change may take a while to get use to. I can agree with charging for tea as I’m sure many gallons got wasted over the years. I do miss having my own pot of tea though.
Understandably a restaurant has to make changes every so often to keep up with current trends or price changes, so it’s up to the customers to adapt. I have seen menu items disappear only to re-appear after the customers expressed displeasure with the change. For me I find change a challenge but one that I’m willing to take if I feel there is merit in it. Change for the sake of change can be a death sentence. Remember when Coke tried to change their recipe? For now, I’m hoping that these changes at the Hard Wok aren’t a sign of the quality declining as the restaurant tries to make a profit. I will reserve judgement, and with the resiliency of my pioneering ancestors I shall adapt.
As always please leave any questions or comments in the box below and until next time, Boone Appétit!
Great article, Charlie. I’m thinking of the article I read recently in The NY Times about the iconic Tea and Sympathy, how it’s struggling right now after many many years of successful business. I know change is inevitable but that doesn’t mean it’s easy! Congratulations on the the graduation! 🙂
Thanks for the reply Jenn, its true change isn’t easy and I know many restaurants have to deal with it especially in NYC.
This is a thoughtful blog, and I hope it grows. Your approach is renaissance-worthy, Charlie. It gets me thinking.
The Chicken and Rice Restaurant in West Nyack had no competition at it’s end of a strip mall for years until Grub opened next door (literally, as the two eateries’ doors are only 6 inches apart, which can’t be ideal for either), and more recently, Grub’s “American Comfort Food” spinoff, framing it in the little building west of them. Lulu’s on the other end of the strip is a different experience entirely, very Small Town Homespun, but that’s a different story. All of them are different enough to stand on their own, I should think, but you can only visit one at a time (Come to think of it, that might be fun to park in the lot and eat something in each of them– a Euro night out like you do in the city).
I digress.
I used to slide by C & R when I had a yearning for their Thai Peanut with Chicken, a real belly filler. I hadn’t stopped in for a while when I visited a couple of weeks ago. It seems they change the decor at least once a year, probably to find the right mix. They also used to replay years-old soccer and basketball games on their flat screens, which put you in an otherworldly place (I regularly searched the games out on Google, and found some to be as much as 6 years old, with no commercials or station breaks to locate them). The whole experience was out of sync, but in an oddly ingratiating and innocent way.
When I last went in, I ordered the Thai Peanut with Chicken to-go, and it was quite different. In the day, the little side salad was a bit of an afterthought, but now it’s upgraded, with shredded veggies and tzatziki sauce drizzled on. The main dish is smaller, more thoughtfully prepared, but less peanutty, and more oniony. I missed the old cafeteria style presentation. No good reason, just that human tendency to stick with the dependable dish. People seem to laud their Tikka Masala, so I’ll try that next time.
Hey Barko, thanks for your words of support and thanks for comments on one of your go to places. I like that they played old sports games on the T.V.,it’s actually intriguing, I find myself asking “why?”. I’ve heard other people talk about Chicken and Rice as well, guess I’m going to have to check it out soon!
I think they were trying on a way to deliver American Sports Culture on basic cable without totally understanding how to do it. I have seen more than one convenience store recently where newly minted Americans put a tip cup by the register while not offering any conventional service that would merit tipping, like making a sandwich(!).
I think they were trying on a way to deliver American Sports Culture on basic cable without totally understanding how to do it. I have seen more than one convenience store recently where newly minted Americans put a tip cup by the register while not offering any conventional service that would merit tipping, like making a sandwich(!).