Upscale Restaurants/Talk

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2007-08-30 17:05:46   I'd like to open up the floor for the discussion of the definition of "upscale". Some people seem to disagree with some of the classifications of restaurants, so let's settle on a definition of "upscale" and go from there. MrRochester, I'm especially interested in your definitions of both "upscale" and "trendy", what the difference is, and why it matters. —RachelBlumenthal

2007-08-30 17:24:21   An upscale restaurant is one that serves sorbet to cleanse your palette and has an old world flavor to it. The place settings have more forks than you need and a dessert spoon.

There are very few left in America.

Upscale has nothing to do with price, it has to do with presentation and service.

Trendy is the modern style of dining. Upscale food but a casual setting and relaxed service.

It is important because those who have never been to the restaurant before or are from out of town should know how to dress/act at a restaurant. This is Rochester, we arent pretentious, so you will probably be served anyway. But it can help.

Trendy - Southern California style where jeans and a sport coat are acceptable.

Upscale - A suit or better would be proper attire. —MrRochester

2007-08-30 17:36:05   I see your distinction. I also think the "upscale" category has become a catch-all for restaurants that aren't chains and have entrees that cost more than $20. But I don't think "Trendy" is the right name for what you're trying to capture. To me, "Trendy" means "the latest popular place". Also, if we're going to break upscale into sub-parts, which I think is probably worth doing, let's try for more than 2 (trendy vs upscale) —RottenChester

2007-08-30 18:24:48   What Mr defines as "upscale" might be better described as "fine dining". I can see "upscale" rataining its broader definition, and including restaurants which could be described as "fine dining", "trendy", "nouveau-anything", etc. Maybe sub-headings within the category would be helpful? Honestly, this is Rochester - do we even have a single restaurant which requires the fellas to wear a jacket? —EastSideStephen

2007-08-30 18:26:35   That said, I do think there are several restaurants in the "upscale" list which dfinitely do not belong there. I'll let you Rochestarians fix that though. —EastSideStephen

2007-08-30 18:29:15   Oh, and regarding Steve's concern about out-of-town visitors: I think that might be best addressed in the restaurant's description. I don't think we need an "attire" note for every restaurant - just when its notable. —EastSideStephen

2007-08-30 22:29:37   I think this is why many restaurant guides simply divvy up establishments based on the cost of entrees and whether they are a la carte or not. This seems to be the case with the current list of upscale restaurants. MrRochester seems to be looking for French-style haute cuisine, which admittedly, is lacking in Rochester. By his definition, however, there can be no upscale traditional Chinese/Japanese restaurants in the world, as European silverware would be out of place and undesirable in such a setting. —DaveMahon

2007-09-14 11:41:10   Hi there! I've just moved in from Italy with my wife as she's started a PhD at UoR.

RocWiki have been an invaluable resource to us, thanks!

Just a question regarding this section: why do you keep listing Bamba Bistro as Rio Bamba (its old name)? I was tempted to edit the page but as I don't know the etiquette here I don't want to start with the wrong foot! :-) —AndreaCogliati

2007-09-14 12:39:53   Andrea, welcome to RocWiki. If you see a page that is misnamed, go ahead and rename the page. When you do a rename, the software redirects people from the old page to the new one, so there's no risk of links breaking. —RottenChester

2007-09-14 14:32:43   Just my 2 european cents to the upscale restaurant definition discussion.

I usually rate restaurants based on the following six factors: Food, Wine List, Location, Ambient, Presentation, Service

An upscale restaurant must have top ratings in every category (well, I can accept low rating for location, maybe). Therefore, as good food, wine, location, furniture, dishes, glassware, silverware and people cost money, in a sense, upscale has to do with price. When friends ask me for good restaurants for cheap prices I simply answer: "There's nothing like that". You can have good food for reasonable price, but you'll probably have to sacrifice something else. More often, you would eat bad food and be overwhelmingly charged!

So, my suggestion is to specify, where appropriate, if the restaurant excels in one or more of the factors I mentioned. —AndreaCogliati