For everything, a season

Bittersweat. That is how one must describe this week's news.
An Icon of American family causal food service died. No more Bennigans. No more will there be a faux-psuedo Irish pub sort of thing in strip malls and suburbs accross suburbia.

Now, let me say I am not a NIMBY-ite. Bennigans got started out as a local place, got popular, and spread all over. As did TGIFridays, Ruby Tuesday, Applebees, Chili's and all the other places of their ilk. Nothing wrong with any of them, just none of them special. Aside from having the same menus, similar decor, etc, they were everywhere. Thanks to historically unheard of prosperity, dining out is no longer something special or a treat. And the restaurants themselves also stopped being special.

I am vacationing on the Outer Banks, and one of my favorite things is all the local restaurants that you can't find anyplace else. There is also an Outback Steakhouse and an Applebees. I asked a local, and they said they are busy, and not just from vacationers, but locals like them, too. For them, it was different. Up until the Outback, the only chains down here were the fast food places. And the Sizzler. But since I am not collecting social security, I am not counting that one.

But one goes and another comes back. Schiltz beer is back! And I can't wait to get a 6 pack. Yep, pure kitch irony value. No other reason. I like PBR for much the same reason.

Prohibition nearly killed off the beer business in the US. Most local breweries did not survive the dry years. Miller, Bud, and a handfull of others came though and found an empty field. Only now is the US the best place in the world for beer. There are few places on earth that you can walk into a common store, not even a beer place, and find dozens of styles of beer. Many places around the globe there is beer. Whatever they make there is beer. No light lagers, no wheat beers, no porters, stouts, ambers and IPAs. If your berg makes a Kolsch style beer, that's beer.

Speaking of which, I have some Weeping Radish brewed with lemons in the fridge now. Shandy style is what most would call it (a shandy being lemonade and beer).

Nats sweep the Reds! Cubs win, Brewers lose. Hall of Fame game tonight with the Redskins. Good start to the week!