The Future of Food Service

So I was sitting in an airport bar, waiting out a flight delay, and had decided to order some food. When my meal of choice arrived it was a cute little number, obviously pre-portioned and prepared some time earlier and sitting on the sidelines awaiting my order. This made me start to ponder where the future of Food Service is headed. As a restaurant owner and a businessman I understand the climate of our economy currently. However every day I see the things that make "Dining Out" great, beginning to fade away. I can't help but think about what the extinction of Restaurants as we know it will mean to us in these United States. Think about this there are over 650,000 restaurants in our country. There are over 5 million people employed as Bartenders, Chefs, Bussers, Servers, Hosts and Ma?tre-De's. That number does not include affiliated trades like, food suppliers, farmers, grocers, truck and delivery drivers, sales representatives, distributers and warehouse workers and others. So I am sure you can see this could be catastrophic to our economy as we know it if we lost a large portion of this branch of our American economy. So my point is, if we do not continue search out, support and frequent great small businesses and Restaurants that deliver a quality handcrafted product we may see this come to fruition. We cannot continue to accept mediocre meal offerings that come in sanitary packaging, paper wrapped bundles packed in bags and handed out through drive through windows or we may soon get most of our nutrition from a Vend-o-mat machine. Yum! Not for me. I have been in this business for over forty years and I refuse to let the small , unique "Mom and Pop" locations suffer and disappear. I choose to care what I put in my mouth and feed my body, do you? Please choose your meals wisely. Choose to frequent establishments that deserve your hard earned dollar, and show it. Be critical as to the quality of what you are served. the uniqueness of a menu, the quality and care of the service you receive. It may take a little more time out of your day however I venture to say you will find it is worth it. Life is short- Eat Well and Be Happy!