I’m sitting in a sushi restaurant named Ru San’s here in Atlanta, Georgia. Many Atlantans know Ru San’s for their inexpensive but tasty sushi, the endearingly loud techno music and the mêlée what I’m convinced are mostly latin decent sushi chef’s greeting you when you walk through the door with nods of recognition and shouting in a chorus of “Origato”s as you leave.
Also in the strip mall is Best Buy, Home Depot, 10-12 other restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, shoe stores and other specialty shops. You can barely find a parking space. There are people in every store, waiting to eat I never restaurant.
It’s like that every night of the week. I drive past restaurants all day long and clothing stores and the parking lots are full. Atlanta has always been one of those wine & dine cities. If you want to get together with a friend, you meet for brunch, coffee, drinks, lunch, dinner, after-dinner drinks, nightcaps…the restaurant industry is alive and well in Atlanta, even in the midst of an economic depression.
My friends with full-time positions are losing their jobs, moving home with their families and applying for government support programs while my friends in the restaurant industry are still bringing home hundreds of dollars (in cash) a shift. Granted, most of my friends in the restaurant industry work prime shifts, have been there for years, and work at higher end restaurants, but it’s starting to make me wonder if, as a nation, we’re tightening our belts in the wrong places.
No pun intended.
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