BY CARSON SHADWELL
Around Atlanta a new restaurant trend is taking over, and customers are quite literally eating it up. The past few years have seen a drastic increase in places offering meals similar to those found at fast-food restaurants, but incorporating a gourmet twist. With the opening (and sudden closing) of Waffold, a North Highland establishment offering everything from the traditional Belgian waffle to seasoned waffle fries, however, I have begun to question the legitimacy of these one-size-fits-all restaurants.
Places like OMG Taco, HD1 and Yogli Mogli have experienced enormous success by attracting consumers looking for a healthy, gourmet substitute to the traditional grease and mystery meat of fast food. These new age restaurants typically offer a single genre such as hot dogs, top them off with golden raisins and radicchio slaw and ring up a whopping $7 price tag. Don’t forget the sweet potato fries!
Living quite close to Yeah! Burger myself, I have visited a few times and been surprised by the experience. The building is sleek and inviting, but the line out the door is enough to make me want to turn and run. If I decide to brave the crowd, I can peruse the laminated menu that proudly boasts grass-fed beef and hydroponic lettuce, which sounds highly scientific if not slightly Frankenstein-y. Once I reach the cash register, I can finally order my “all natural turkey burger,” which, if I read the fine print, was raised in Pennsylvania. I am surprised a detailed list of the turkey’s hopes and dreams is not included as well. By opting for some sauce and cheese on my prize turkey with a kale side salad I push my bill to an alarming $15.
While I understand the price of organic meat and produce far exceeds the alternative, I cannot help but be skeptical that the high prices are due to the cost of the ingredients. After all, no matter how many “organics” or “hydroponics” you smatter across a page, it doesn’t change the fact that this is fast food. Underneath the southern white bun lies a mound of oily meat smothered in cheese and served next to deep fried pickle slices. This isn’t a four-star service kind of restaurant either. It is a stand-in-line, take-a-number kind of restaurant.
More alarmingly, others have followed Yeah! Burger’s lead and opened pseudogourmet restaurants, adding on the high prices but leaving off the organic meat and produce. HD1 offers the “Eastbound and Down” hotdog of Carolina pulled pork, country slaw and mop sauce for $6.25 with $5 chili cheese fries. Or you can opt for some heart-stopping pork, cheese and onion gravy-covered poutine waffle fries for $7. There is no mention of “hormone free” or “grass-fed” here.
If you’re feeling even more casual, you can venture to the North Highland food trucks on Wednesday night for a quesadilla and a drink amounting to $10. Eat these seated on the luxurious asphalt of the parking lot under a street light. You can even top off your meal with some $5 frozen yogurt.
Glancing around any of these restaurants paints a similar picture of 20-to-30-year-olds dressed in plaid flannel, maybe accompanied by a couple of small children, but I remain unsure why these customers are so eager to empty their wallets for Asian fusion tacos and whip cream-covered waffles. Perhaps they believe themselves to be prime examples of a healthy, environmentally conscious lifestyle. More likely they feel they are above eating Taco Bell and I-Hop. What I am sure of, however, is that this trend has remained hard for me to swallow let alone afford.
