"Norman Brinker, a restaurant mogul who popularized the salad bar and built a worldwide casual dining empire that includes Chili's Grill & Bar, died Tuesday. He was 78...
"...Brinker moved to Dallas in the 1960s and started a coffee shop before developing the concept for Steak & Ale restaurants in the mid-1960s. The chain popularized the salad bar..."
That hurts me. I might go eat at a salad bar today. Might be appropriate to get it to-go.
Never even ate a salad until I was 20. In Lafayette, of all places. At a Piccadilly. Karl Terrbonne was in the line beside me. First day I ate cheese, too. Put it on my salad. It was all at Karl's suggestion. I have him and Mr. Brinker to thank for any positive salad experience I've ever had.
Some day I need to write about salad bars. There are good ones and there can be really bad ones, and the bad ones outnumber the good ones. But when you run into a good one -- the one in the faculty clubroom at Tech is a winner -- it's hard to beat. Fresh lettuce. Fresh cucumbers. Fresh fruit. Fresh stuff. Fresh stuff is such a good thing...
Salad. Bar. Makes you think there should be Jack Daniels dressing somewhere. And I guess there could be. Only some people would go back through the line two times. Or three times. Or 17 times.
