As I was looking for their web site, I found this anonymous review of Hickory Bar-B-Que (the place on Brown St. that usually has a line at night), "I'm all for old-school, institution-type restaurants like this but I think they should deliver on some level. This Brown St. restaurant has all the trappings... the decor, ultra-guardian over-age staff, and the faux exclusivity of waiting for your table. Even at below average, I tend to give a place like this a break out of respect and/or shear sentimentality but Hickory failed to meet that mark, for me. I guess if you're a retiree that gets really excited about predictable, bland dinner club fare served in a music-less, stale environment this is your huckleberry."
I agree with what is quoted. I went to Hickory Bar-B-Que with a lot of excitement. I usually find good results when a place attracts a crowd. What worried me is that no one that I know had suggested that I try the place. The food was good but it just wasn't as great as it should be.
I don't know enough about why Hickory has stayed in business for so long to make an educated guess so I'm going to just make a guess. I think that for many years that this was the best barbecue in Dayton due to a lack of competition and experience with good barbecue. As barbecue becomes more popular and good barbecue becomes more common, I worry about Hickory's place in the local restaurant scene. I hope that they are inspired to become better.
There are other places in Dayton that seem to be living on legacy. They are places where the owners have not invested capital in the facility and spruces up the menu by adding some "light" food but not really improving the facility, the service or the menu. I think that maintaining great quality can be done over decades. Mama Disalvo's is a good example of that. The litmus test for a restaurant is not whether they can keep people coming for decades; it is whether they can keep new people coming back. That is the difference between a legend and a slow death.
By the way, the best part of Hickory Bar-B-Que is looking through the sidewalk window and seeing the food being cooked. The reason Hickory Bar-B-Que is not better is because you can see the food through the glass, their method of cooking does not produce enough smoke, especially wood smoke.
Showing posts with label UD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UD. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Taste of Adventure
I think Dayton's scariest curiosity, our freak house of horrors, is Wah-Fu, the Chinese restaurant near Miami Valley Hospital and close to UD.
Everything about the restaurant indicates that the place should be shut-down. Wah-Fu's parking lot is rough and includes parking on a side lot that seems sketchy. The building's exterior needs repair. The inside looks like a gutted house with the kitchen in the back. The decor involves heavy doses of fake wood paneling and mismatched furniture. Between finding the place, having the courage to walk-in and surviving the shock of the interior, it is amazed that anyone stays. The prices do not inspire confidence, yet they are inviting. However, it is indisputable that if the place was deadly, it would not have survived for at least 10 years.
Wah-Fu is the best value of any restaurant in Dayton. There is not anything on the menu above $5. I had shrimp and snow peas, an egg roll, and a bowl of won ton soup for $4.85. That is unthinkable. It also helps build the spirit of adventure.
Pricing is an interesting subject in business. It is part of the marketing of a product or service because it affects how people view the product. Wah-Fu puts out a very impressive product at an incredible price. The meal that I ate would have been fairly priced at $8, plus tip. So, the $4.85 becomes part of the restaurant's story. What would the impression of Wah-Fu be if the meals cost $7.50? In one sense, the price is one of its draws. However, at the same time, the prices do not inspire confidence. It would be an interesting exercise in pricing strategy if the owners actually charged $7.50 for the meal that I ate. Of course, if the prices could improve their profit, they could reinvest the profit in fixing some of their other flaws.
I hope that they don't change.
The last time that I went, I went with a group of 12 people. Of the 12, I had been there once, another girl had been there regularly several years ago, and the other 10 had never been there. The luncheon took on the feel of an adventure and that brought us closer together. While people were scared about what was going to come out of the kitchen, they were reassured once the plates of food arrived. To quote a friend of mine without her knowledge, "I'm glad you and XXXX were brave enough to try out Wah-fu. I know I was pleasantly surprised."
Wah-fu is about more than the scary aesthetics and the pricing. It has really good food. It is not my favorite Chinese restaurant in Dayton but I think, in a blind taste test of random people, Wah-Fu would do kick some ass. They do the basics well and bring full flavor to their dishes.
Your final warning about Wah-Fu: They don't take credit cards.
Everything about the restaurant indicates that the place should be shut-down. Wah-Fu's parking lot is rough and includes parking on a side lot that seems sketchy. The building's exterior needs repair. The inside looks like a gutted house with the kitchen in the back. The decor involves heavy doses of fake wood paneling and mismatched furniture. Between finding the place, having the courage to walk-in and surviving the shock of the interior, it is amazed that anyone stays. The prices do not inspire confidence, yet they are inviting. However, it is indisputable that if the place was deadly, it would not have survived for at least 10 years.
Wah-Fu is the best value of any restaurant in Dayton. There is not anything on the menu above $5. I had shrimp and snow peas, an egg roll, and a bowl of won ton soup for $4.85. That is unthinkable. It also helps build the spirit of adventure.
Pricing is an interesting subject in business. It is part of the marketing of a product or service because it affects how people view the product. Wah-Fu puts out a very impressive product at an incredible price. The meal that I ate would have been fairly priced at $8, plus tip. So, the $4.85 becomes part of the restaurant's story. What would the impression of Wah-Fu be if the meals cost $7.50? In one sense, the price is one of its draws. However, at the same time, the prices do not inspire confidence. It would be an interesting exercise in pricing strategy if the owners actually charged $7.50 for the meal that I ate. Of course, if the prices could improve their profit, they could reinvest the profit in fixing some of their other flaws.
I hope that they don't change.
The last time that I went, I went with a group of 12 people. Of the 12, I had been there once, another girl had been there regularly several years ago, and the other 10 had never been there. The luncheon took on the feel of an adventure and that brought us closer together. While people were scared about what was going to come out of the kitchen, they were reassured once the plates of food arrived. To quote a friend of mine without her knowledge, "I'm glad you and XXXX were brave enough to try out Wah-fu. I know I was pleasantly surprised."
Wah-fu is about more than the scary aesthetics and the pricing. It has really good food. It is not my favorite Chinese restaurant in Dayton but I think, in a blind taste test of random people, Wah-Fu would do kick some ass. They do the basics well and bring full flavor to their dishes.
Your final warning about Wah-Fu: They don't take credit cards.
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