Usually suburban restaurant food can be only from, diners or chains. Food from other coutnries was a rarity until recently. The vibe is changing with more diverse menus entering small towns.
Regular contributor and cookbook author Priya Krishna wrote about this new movement in today's new York Times Food section running a place in Mom and Pop America has pluses and minuses. Many suburban diners take to the idea of different cuisines coming into their sphere. At Jalea's in Saint Charles Missouri,sister and brother Mimi and Andrew Cisneros serve dishes that are new to locals yet they love it. The same is true of the Balkan based eatery Balkan Treat Box in Webster Missouri, another Saint Louis suburb. Owners edo and Loryn Nalyk worried that diners wouldn;t like their food or that they'd have to water down some recipes such as pidi, a kind of pizza and balik ekmek grilled fish in parsley and lemon. Tasting menus are also being introduced. These have largely belonged to the big city eateries like Lidia Bastianich's Felidia and Da Posto. Heritage dishes are also getting a chance in small town resttaurants. Another reason is that millennials are moving from the big cities to areas outside larger cities. They bring with them a more sophisticated and varied palate.
The suburbs allow chefs to shine. They dont need the big city gloss or attention. However there are a few caveats despite the easiness of opening a restaurant in a small town. traditional Baby Boom towns, those suburbs built to accommodate burgeoning families in the years following World war Two. These were meant for miles of residential property and very little commercial land..Unless the town has been established pre World War Two, there is no down town or shopping area where homeowners can walk to restaurants. Foot traffic is usually reserved to just the weekends. Restaurants also have to navigate through the sometimes tricky and sticky local government departments such as health,planning and zoning. There's also a lack of mass transit that can ferry locals from their homes to the town's hub according to Dr. willow Lung-aman, an urban panning professor at the University of Maryland. There are also prejudices too regarding black and gay restaurant owners according to Kristen Jeffers founder of the media group Black Urbanist. Thankfully younger homeowners re speaking out about this unfairness.
The suburbs are calling. Young chefs and restauranteurs should heed its' siren's call. There's a whole world just waiting to try new flavors and new cuisines.
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