Comments Elsewhere: It's Official: L'explorateur to Close

I tend to write extended comments to blog posts on other people's sites regularly -- and I neglect to write here on my own site. I'm going to try to offset that by starting a new regular habit - reprinting my comments here with a link to the site where I made the comment. I know I've read about some automated ways to get comments I've made on other sites show up here on mine, but I don't have the time to look into that right now, so I'm doing it the manual way.

For context: visit this link. It's Official: L'explorateur to Close

Honestly, I think it says more about Indianapolis budgets than our dining habits, and it says more about restauranteurs not really understanding the Indy market. I've never had the money to go to L'explorateur, and I certainly don't now.

I hate chain restaurants and overly salted food as much as you do. But SOME of our unique independent restaurants have to be within a budget for everyone to go regularly and not just as a birthday gift or holiday treat.

If you look at New York and Chicago and LA - locals don't go to L'explorateur-like restaurants every night. Those high-flyers are attended by tourists from out of town, with locals attending on special occasions, and the large population of those cities means occasional dining from locals is enough to keep high-end restaurants in business.

But those cities also have awesome, independently-owned and operated restaurants that fit in the $ and $$ range - that's where locals do their daily dining.

The Indianapolis market needs a lot more of these quality $ and $$ restaurants. And right now, our cities population isn't big enough that we can support high-end restaurants with occasional dining.