A Place to Eat

I remember in college one evening driving around to find a place to eat with a friend. We drove from restaurant to restaurant, only to discover that the wait-times were somewhere between forty-five minutes to an hour at each one. We continued to drive further away from campus (this was in Richmond, VA), until we finally gave up (since we were about thirty to forty minutes away from campus) on a casual dining restaurant and settled on fast food.

That was many years ago, and now, if I wanted to go out to a restaurant, one, I’d probably quit after the first restaurant that told me the wait-time was forty minutes, and two, I’d go back home and just raid my pantry to make something to eat. I think there comes a point where you’ve maxed out on the experienced of eating out, and you’re content with making food at home. At least, that how it is for me.

When I make food at home, depending on the mood I’m in, I’ll make something that doesn’t require a ton of clean up afterwards. But if it does require a lot of clean up, I’ll clean as I prep the food (or put dishes in the sink as I go), so that after I eat, the clean up is short and minimal. And when I make food at home, there’s usually leftover afterwards that I can save for tomorrow or the day after that.

No longer would I spend an hour or more (as I did then on that college night) driving around to find a place to eat. But the benefits of eating out, whether if it’s with friends or family, is that it is a social experience, since it’s a time to converse, laugh, and to catch up with people you might not have seen in months or years. It’s harder to do so when you’re eating alone at home, or if you’re just grabbing something quick to eat during your lunch break.

Of course, one could argue it is cheaper to not eat out, especially when you include tip and the cost of the meal itself (as opposed to making it at home). But then again, eating out can be a fun experience when you want to enjoy a meal and catch up with someone and not have to clean up afterward or spend minutes (or hours) to cook the meal. Besides, eating out depends on who’s going out to eat, right? If you’re driving to your friend’s or family’s home, that’s technically eating out (and vice versa). Or instead of eating out at a restaurant, eating out can be a table at a park, a table at a food court, or just eating in the car while parked in a parking lot during a road trip.