"Tell me about the lunch rush."
Do you in fact notice an anecdotal trend toward restaurants that are intellectually stimulating while being emotionally distant? As important, do you think it is correct to think of a restaurant’s food as art and of its dining room as the gallery showing that work, as Brian suggests? Or is the culture of restaurants really one in which the diner’s whole experience is the art? (That’s what your Uncle Sam believes.)
What the hell is he even talking about? Does Sam Sifton know that restaurants don’t have feelings?
When he says “your Uncle Sam” is he talking about himself, or about America? Or does he think he himself is representative of America?
I think he’s being, you know, folksy!