I see this image and I wonder where the fuck else people are going to eat. Tbh this reads as a very urban take, if you’re living in an area that basically exists to service people driving on the interstate it is just all chains. Any “family” restaurants are serving food from the same bulk supplier so they’re identical to one another as well on top of tasting bad and being overpriced. People say chains are bad but like theyr’e at least consistent, paying $20 for really bad pizza that’s worse than the $10 pizza you can get from Pizza Hut of all places is the extent of commercial food culture in much of so-called flyover country.

There isn’t really such a thing as a public space out here. Any other kind of date is simply going to be at a bar or at someone’s house. You simply do not socialize like how people socialize on TV out here, you either have to be visiting your friends’ houses regularly or you’re going to simply go direclty home and watch TV. There’s simply not enough rich people to support anything more upscale.