What hapa?: Unconvinced that opening your own food business in this town can be a deeply shitty endeavor? Look no further than the exchange sparked by Wednesday's Doggy Bag. I chewed over Andrew Simmons' report on Bay Area Bites, the one about last weekend's Hapa Ramen pop-up clusterfuck at Coffee Bar.
I won't dredge up details here ― read the comments in Wednesday's Doggy Bag to catch a whiff of the suckage. Yes, the Coffee Bar event was a disaster ― my Wednesday piece was intended to examine, not that, but the absurdity of the food-media echo chamber in this town, taking something as trifling, ultimately, as a ramen party, and elevating it to the level of culinary milestone. I'm as guilty as anyone.
In the comments on Wednesday's post, the hostility and sense of entitlement that commenter Lorelei flings at Hapa's Richie Nakano ― I wonder why a chef would risk engaging such ignorance, even to become an entrepreneur. Yes, diners part with cash and expect fair return; but showing up at a painfully overcrowded pop-up, where you can reasonably expect the kitchen to be MacGyvered together for the night (hello, it's Coffee Bar) ― I mean, seriously.
But is it reasonable to expect a restaurant experience at a pop-up, or at a street-cart event? Do I think the crème brûlée I score in Precita Park should be as silky-textured as the chocolate pot de crème at Foreign Cinema? Would I be an idiot for demanding that Crème Brûlée Man return my $4 when it's not? Work those questions out for yourself.
Follow us on Twitter at @SFoodie. Contact me at John.Birdsall@SFWeekly.com.
