As previously mentioned, this local area is distinctly lacking in food choices. West Chester has a little more variety, but it's not a convenient drive for when people come to visit.
I like the idea of these sushi places popping up here and there. Coatesville simply doesn't have the cultured populace to support something like that near work. I'm doomed to KFC and Burger King. I can't even get a Taco Bell in this anti-culture environment.
Chinese food is good, but you only have a few options. Either you're getting take-out or you're eating at a buffet. Neither of these ideas is particularly appealing to me as a dinner option when I want to take someone out to eat.
Here's what I was thinking would be very cool for around home, if someone really wanted to open a new restaurant. I suggest that someone opens a chinese fusion restaurant near here.
It wouldn't be a super-posh dining experience, but it could have the same level of cheesy decorations that they throw around all of those cookie-cutter restaruants. Rather than nailing old pictures, license plates, and Volkswagon bumpers to the wall, they could put appropriate shoots of botted bamboo in some corners, and hang Chinese tapestry. The booths would be separated with pseudo-rice paper (since you don't want kids poking through the walls). Best of all, the fake Chinese decorations would probably be made in China!
The food would be your typical Chinese take-out, but a limited menu. I have stared at Chinese food menus for hours trying to figure out what I would like. I think that the difficulty is not just that there are so many choices, but that I don't know what any of them mean. What the heck is Szechwan beef, anyway? Why does it taste so radically different from restaurant to restaurant?
The food choices should be discrete, with perhaps 3-4 selections from each of the Chinese food groups: Beef, Pork, Seafood. There would be the typical side items, like egg rolls and spring rolls, and the mysterious pu-pu platter. Every meal comes with a choice of fried rice (matched to your choice of meat) or white rice. For soup, hot and sour, wonton, and lemongrass.
Perhaps there could be a small Thai section as well, for the adventurous connoisseur. This would include Pad Thai and Evil Jungle Princess (or some other cryptically named evil dish). The key to the menu is that all of the entrees are described for flavor, so you know what you're getting.
This place would have a wokery bar rather than a sushi bar. You tell the chef what you want cooked and he does it in a wok right in front of you over an open flame.
I think an important addition would be some chinification of some american dishes. For example, a good steak and some rice with a side of Chinese veggies would be a decent meal. This type of thing would be required because there is always someone in a medium to large group that won't eat "that stuff". It's kind of like the corn dog they serve at Chi-Chi's, but for a grown-up.
Maybe this place should just serve a variety of asian foods. Korean pork barbeque on fresh lettuce leaves with white rice would be nice. Teriyaki beef is tasty, but I might prefer a nice vegetable tempura with a ginger sauce and a spring roll. Or maybe have some roti with a variety of chutney, and samosas as an appetizer. As long as there aren't 50 varieties and the flavor is easy to describe in a short written description, it should be fine.
Why not have limited selections of all of these foods under one roof? Sounds yummy to me.
With the profits you take from using this restaurant idea, please also build a CompUSA into the shopping center across the street from me. Thanks.
