Eating out is nowadays a common habit, mostly attributed to those individuals, who needs to work full-time and thus have lunch out of their home. The modern restaurant market offers a number of places, where one can enjoy their favorite food, listen to music, socialize and discuss job issues. Due to the huge variation in this market, there is a number of categories of restaurants – from cheap fast-food bistros, serving hamburgers and French fries, to luxurious and glamorous places, where the newcomers might get lost and puzzled when reading the long menu with a number of strange dishes.
The present paper compares a fast-food restaurant to a “slow-food” one. The most popular fast-food restaurant in out country is McDonald’s. This network is based upon franchising, so the restaurants around the country and the world in general have the same exterior and interior – yellow and red symbols and the letter “M”, standing for the brand (Limulus, 1994). This place seems designed primarily for children, due to the colorful decorations and “childish” embellishment.In addition, the visitor notices a large playing room, “equipped” with balloons, balls, toys and chudes, so that the underage visitors can have fun there while their parents are standing in the queue.
In fact, during busy hours, the McDonald’s is crowded, as fast food has already become a national American product, more simply, there is a number of fast food fans in our country. The principle of service is the following: in order to get the desirable food, the visitor should approach to the cash desk, make order, wait there until it is brought and pay off.Furthermore, the visitor begins to search for a free table to sit and have lunch. In this restaurant, the customers sit on stiff metallic chairs at small tables, intended for two, four of six persons.
While eating, the visitor can notice a large storefront that demonstrates the newest Happy Meal toys as well as numerous advertisements, persuading guests to order salads and natural meat in the McDonald’s, as these products are vital for healthy lifestyle and fitness. In addition, the restaurant offers several low calorie menus as well as the traditional fast food pies, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.It is difficult to concentrate and read a newspaper or a book in this restaurants, because of incredible noise, made by children as well as because of the common turmoil, created by rushing and busy people. This means, the McDonald’s, in spite of its democratic prices, is far from ideal, especially for individualists, who have very specific food preferences. On the contrary, the restaurant called “The French Laundry” (California) is intended for those, who use to value coziness, silence and traditional manners.Its interior is designed in very light colors, which neither irritate nor distract attention.
Seeing the soft furniture and French-styled tables with embellished legs, one understands that this place is actually what they have been dreaming about for dinners after the stressful working day (Bromley, 1995). Service is perfect in this restaurant, and one is unlikely to notice crowds, as tables are to be booked beforehand, especially for the evenings of French chanson; waiters are bright and polite so that they can recommend dishes and drinks according to the guest’s preferences.Due to the fact that “The French Laundry” is a slow-food restaurant, customers should wait up to 40 minutes until their order is brought, but the delicious and high-quality food actually compensates with this time as well as with its high price. To sum up, both the McDonald’s and “The French Laundry” have their strong and weak points, as services of high quality are available only for the respectively high prices. Both restaurants have already proven the necessity of their existence, as both of them have different concepts and target audiences.
