Comments on: The Pretension Quotient

By: -a.

-a. — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 23:16:52 +0000

Also, don’t forget La Feria (in Shadyside) for super-good, quite cheap, unpretentious food! One of my favorite places in Pittsburgh. Sadly, few people know about it.

By: a.

a. — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 19:49:55 +0000

I was trying to be sort of sarcastic, which admittedly is hard in an online forum and also because I have a poor sense of humor. In general, I was just remarking on the fact that it seemed kind of silly to define foods and terms that I feel are pretty common. It wasn’t supposed to be a serious attack on the restaurant. Pretention means exaggerated importance, right, so to me it seemed the menu was exaggerating the importance of fairly mundane foods. Most people I know are aware of what scallions and goat cheese are, so I didn’t really get what their motive for defining the stuff was. I mean, it wasn’t exactly rare monkey-picked scallions or goat cheese from 2-headed circus goats.

But, if that sort of menu glossary encourages diners to explore foods they otherwise might not, it’s by all means a positive endeavor. Even if Oak Barrel’s definitions are not too useful in my opinion, at least they are a bit more down-to-earth than some of the *really* pretentious places, like “baby greens which have been picked by 13 year old blonde swedish virgins and watered by the tears of a miraculous weeping statue” which actually means something significantly less impressive.

By: p

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:12:27 +0000

What’s pretentious about the Oak Barrel’s website defining terms for site visitors? It’s simply a kind gesture. Possibly you should look up the meaning of pretentious!

By: a.

a. — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:37:14 +0000

I can’t decide of it’s misguided pretention or just sort of strange that the Oak Barrel’s website has links to define arcane menu items like “scallions”, “goat cheese” , “cilantro” and “ragu” (sic).

By: Deb Denovich

Deb Denovich — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 17:18:19 +0000

The Mighty Oak Barrel has fantastic food, not just ‘good’

http://www.mightyoakbarrel.com/

By: Mark Denovich

Mark Denovich — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 14:32:22 +0000

Thanks for the recommendations. We hit Cucina Flegrea last night based and found it to be quite good, a place to try again. It might have been great, but my enjoyment was probably tempered by the fact I was paying $20 for rather simple pasta.

Oh, I’d add The Mighty Oak Barrel (in Oakmont) to your Not Pretentious but Good category. Although the food is a bit pretentious, the building has all the ambiance of a VFW. Worth a visit.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 00:42:43 +0000

new place I’ve eaten at last couple of times is The Green Mango http://www.thegreenmango.com/
very simple, seats only 4 people, takeout mostly, family operated, superb thai food and the people are great.

By: Andrew Plotkin

Andrew Plotkin — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 06:31:36 +0000

I had forgotten the horsey. Yes. Okay.

Now, are giant flaming tiki heads pretentious or anti-pretentious?

Actually, don’t answer that.

By: psu

psu — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:59:46 +0000

the fact that p.f. chang’s is even claiming to serve
chinese food qualifies them as pretentious. plus
the horsey

By: Andrew Plotkin

Andrew Plotkin — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:51:13 +0000

I was going to say “Church Brew Works? Ungreat? Are you nuts?” but
then I read your comments. I’ve never gone in there and wanted
anything *except* pizza or a sandwich. And a slab of bread pudding the
size of my liver. Mmm.

So there’s an obvious “Do you know what to order?” axis which you have
to consider. Anyhow, I would not *divide* by “pretention”, because
pretention isn’t a negative for me. It’s funny, like modern art.
(Unless the place is so pretentious that I can’t or won’t walk in the
door, in which case food quality is hardly an issue.)

I also wonder how you can categorize P. F. Chang’s as pretentious,
since the one time I went in it seemed to have a perfectly
straightforward atmosphere of “We are a cafeteria the size of PNC
Park. We will serve you the same menu as every other Chinese
restaurant in America. We will lower the lighting, though.” Then the
food all tasted like lighter fluid.