• Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      107·
      10 days ago

      I went to a bar like this in Brooklyn. It was decorated like the outside of a trailer park, complete with little trailers that were dining booths. There were strings of lights for ambient lighting and the tables had camping lamps.

      The rest of the furniture was lawn chairs and folding tables, and they served hot dogs and hamburgers and potato salad, standard picnic fare.

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
      66·
      10 days ago

      Honestly, that sounds like some refreshing fun. Have the cook with a big grill out front, and putting in the order is just chatting with them.

      “Hey, bud, you want a burger, hot dog, steak, or some of this brisket I been smoking since this morning? Want something to drink? There’s beer and soda in the cooler, or we got tap water. The little cooler has juice for the little’uns.”

      And then have a cashier keep track of what they had, conveyor-belt sushi style. The cook chats with whoever is standing around drinking a beer with them (and is drinking beers or soda or whatever all shift), and everything gets served on paper plates. And the tables are all those wooden picnic tables with cheap plastic tablecloths.

      And those who are eating there are encouraged to stand around and chat with other people as well (if they want). Just make the whole thing like a backyard barbecue with your neighbor Hank.

      And hire nothing but retired men and women working part time as the cooks. Nothing but grill daddies and mommies, working just for some extra cash and the fun of barbecuing. I would take that job when I retired in an instant.

      Edit: better yet, make it habachi-style, where there’s a grill daddy/mommy for every group or two, set up like a park barbecue. I love this and want to go to one or work at one now.

        • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          7·
          10 days ago

          I want to open it overseas! Export some actual American culture.

          I also want to have special football nights where we put the game on and do snack food appetizers. Pigs in a blanket, a couple crackpots of little smokies, chips and dip. There’s a big sign out front that says when we offer tea we mean southern style sweet tea, so please ask for unsweetened if that’s what you want!

          So many ways this could be done right.

      • Owl@mander.xyz
        5·
        10 days ago

        I would take that job when I retired in an instant

        You won’t have to get a job when you retire if you have this kind of good ideas

        • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
          4·
          10 days ago

          For some context, I am in the military and will be retiring in five years at the age of 47. So I won’t need to work, but I want to find fun work that I want to do after. I think I’m the type that will wither and die within a year of retiring from any work. I’m not self-motivated enough to create work for myself, and I need to be doing something or I’ll sleep 18 hours a day and feel useless the rest of the time. I need a schedule, and I need someone else to make it.

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
        3·
        10 days ago

        I don’t know of any restaurant here that does that, but sometimes bars and such throw parties for their regulars, and they’re kinda like that. A few grill, there’s drinks, people talk and hang out, etc.

        • Soggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 days ago

          You can get good Texmex pretty much anywhere with with a hispanic population. Won’t be as cheap as the South but still. There’s a couple spots near me in the PNW that set up sketchy pop-ups on the sidewalk after dark but they got dope tacos al pastor and they are always busy.

    • 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      10 days ago

      I would do this, just give me a pack of smokes and drinks and ill cook ya whatever you want (and im not even american!)

    • Graphy@lemmy.world
      27·
      10 days ago

      I think the full experience would be children running around with the dirtiest faces you’ve ever seen.

      Your uncle getting in trouble with the park ranger for feeding the seagulls again.

      One of your cousins brought their new girlfriend to the event and are for some reason fighting in the parking lot

      Your aunt brought her Rottweiler who barks and snaps at all the families passing by

      I grew up in Florida

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 days ago

        I grew up in Texas. Needs more dominos and spades, and pawpaw needs to pray over the food.

        I ain’t religious but I ain’t telling pawpaw not to pray over the food.

  • quixotic120@lemmy.worldEnglish
    39·
    10 days ago

    I went to a western restaurant in Japan that was “stereotypical USA” themed and there was mainly kitschy shit all over the place like advertising memorabilia (stuff m&m character statues) and of course american flag themed stuff (but iirc no actual flag)

    It was a long time ago but I remember the menu was like burgers, hotdogs, mac and cheese, etc and the food was super mid. Main thing I do remember was the mac and cheese was 100% kraft dinner which was so disappointing. the burger was also weak which is inexcusable because japan has serious burger game

    • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
      201·
      10 days ago

      Honestly, that kinda sounds like the average American diner experience. Not bad, not good, just okay. Granted, a small hole-in-the-wall or independent diner that’s been around forever will almost certainly be better; but when it comes to your average American diner (like IHOP, Denny’s, etc) that sounds about right.

      • quixotic120@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        10 days ago

        No it was a small hole in the wall place in (I think) kyoto that had a single employee and like 4 tables. The walls were literally covered in Americana shit but heavy on the advertising slant (which is pretty definitive of american culture tbh)

        It did have drink bar though, though not nearly as much selection what you’d see at a family diner type place or karaoke

      • quixotic120@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        10 days ago

        yeah no shit, america is a melting pot and it’s food culture is an amalgamation of foods from other cultures

        And frankly some aspects of most of those are spurious. The origin of the hamburger is debatable mainly because before america it was (probably) just a mince patty served with sauce, much closer to what japan serves as hambagu/ハンバーグ. It likely wasn’t until it came through shipping ports to america that it was served on bread, ground instead of minced (though this was likely a function of the era), and eventually over time evolved to the modern version of what we consider a “hamburger”

        Mac and cheese actually goes back to medieval england and was closer to a lasagna. The extruded version is also probably england, or possibly france. Unless you’re simply attributing dried pasta, which is probably an italian invention, but may be arabic

        Frankfurter is german but the modern hotdog is american and debatably the idea of serving it in a bun is an american invention, which again goes back to the hamburger and the insanity of prior to america people struggle to combine meat and bread

        In closing I bet you’re fun at parties. Also while america sucks at so many things we definitely make the best burgers in the world, hands down

        • jawsua@lemmy.one
          2·
          9 days ago

          Totally agree with you

          The Hamburger they’re referring to is a Hamburg steak, which is a grilled and gravy-topped plate version of Steak Tartar, a rare beef dish that’s a French version of … a Tartar chopped beef dish. It’s all versions of something else and they change each time. The American change to grilling, buns, and a handheld version isn’t any less than the German or French, IMHO

          Same for “Frankfurters”, they’re pork, lamb intestine, boiled, and only served on a plate. But American hot dogs historically are kosher beef, spiced more heavily, are typically grilled, and absolutely are served on specialized buns developed for them.

          This is typical for American food inventions, a rejection of any updates or improvements.

  • frezik@midwest.social
    15·
    9 days ago

    One of the subtler jokes in Arrested Development is Little Briton having an “American-style” restaurant where the whole plate is covered in fries.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    173·
    10 days ago

    I like this a lot better than the standard American [insert meme here] where everybody has like 5 guns. Such a tired trope.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
      144·
      10 days ago

      Indeed, it has been done many times, but there’s no sign of it stopping anytime soon. like their school shootings

      • Cort@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 days ago

        Completely stopping school shootings, probably not, but it seems likely that some may be getting redirected to the C-suite.

  • tacosplease@lemmy.world
    6·
    10 days ago

    I want to see Buc-ee’s and the fast food chain Cookout go international. That’s authentic American food, and it’s pretty damn tasty.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      11·
      10 days ago

      I couldn’t imagine a Buc-ee’s in Europe.

      In Texas there are signs for “Next Buc-ee’s 108 miles”. Do that in parts of Europe and you have to cross multiple international borders…and none of them will know wtf a mile is.

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
            1·
            9 days ago

            There is? I just searched Google maps…I live in MA and it showed a response on Cape but it was actually a “Bucky’s”. It showed one in New Jersey but that was a podunk little place named Delta Gas.

            Northernest ones I saw were in Kentucky. There were closer ones to Europe…probably Florence SC, Pelham NC, or Daytona FL.

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
          1·
          9 days ago

          As an ignorant American, does Europe even have billboards like America does?

          For context…Buc-ee’s takes pride in their exceptionally clean restrooms. Also idk if gross rest stop/truck stop restrooms are as much of a trope over there.

          • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
            1·
            9 days ago

            does Europe even have billboards like America does?

            At least not here (Switzerland).

            Also idk if gross rest stop/truck stop restrooms are as much of a trope over there.

            More in public restrooms. Bigger train stations have “Mr. Clean” since a few years now, clean and nice for 1.50 CHF. Not like the same service would make train billets much more expensive but anyway.

            But rest stops, we have as much as villages; all few km the next one.

  • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world
    72·
    10 days ago

    If your normal diet consists of healthy food like many Japanese diets do, eating authentic American food is NOT a good idea, especially southern food. I say this from experience.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
      1·
      10 days ago

      healthy food like many Japanese diets do

      Wanna explain what that is? Because obesity is on the rise here and people day-to-day are just eating konbini (convenience store) pre-packaged stuff laden with fried food and instant noodles.

      • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 days ago

        Meals that aren’t stuffed with butter and sugar. Even the stuff at 7-eleven or Lawson is far healthier than a lot of American food.

        • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
          2·
          10 days ago

          There’s still a fair bit of sugar in everything. I think trans-fats are also still in use here unless that changed recently.