The Bear is about a high-end chef who comes back to his family Italian beef sandwich establishment after his brother's suicide. The premise is that after trying to make this seemingly fish out of water scenario work, they tear down the Italian beef sandwich establishment from within to make room for a high-end restaurant.
People figure your humble narrator is into the show because 1) the nuance of how restaurants work and 2) living in the city where the show takes place.
I struggled to get through Season 1. Pardon this pun but the show was a bear to watch. Too much fake drama no matter how "realistic" the show was about the restaurant world.
If you didn't care about the food and restaurant themes, you would complain about the terrible writing, vague attempts at character development, the soliloquies that are more hilarious than meaningful, the details the creators clearly get wrong, the way character relationships jump around with alleged off-screen resolution.
Let's get to the real hero and villain of the story. The villain is a place such as the Original Beef restaurant (Italian beef). The hero is a place such as The Bear, the new high-end restaurant.
In Season 1, Episode 7, Richie (old guard) and Sydney (new guard) have a discussion about those workers who won't have access with all the fancy changes. Richie is the old guard. Sydney is the new guard.
Sydney said this is about the business model. As empathetic as the character is, she doesn't care about the current customers or the future customers. Sydney is also obsessed to have a Michelin star. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants without a Michelin star who do better by their customers but the star is the golden calf.
Watch that scene even if you don't watch anything else from the show. Not every restaurant needs to be the mighty high-end restaurant. Fewer people will be able to eat out other than going through a drive-thru and trying to eat a cheeseburger while stuck in traffic. The Bear isn't about them; it's the competition for the rich people who can afford to eat at The Bear.
Interestingly. Sydney is one of the few decently developed characters in the whole show.
In Season 2, they rehab the building to turn the old place into the new place. Realistically, they could take over one of the many closed high-end restaurants but that wouldn't make for TV "fun" by discovering the building has mold inside.
Usually, high-end places, especially in River North, the downtown neighborhood in Chicago where the show takes place, has valet parking. Not sure where the cars would go for the high-end place since the Italian beef establishment had benches for eating outdoors and is accessible by nearby buses.
Putting the new restaurant in the old building is a metaphor that is actually relevant. Since the place will have very limited seating, they will need to turnover pretty quickly where high-end people tend to enjoy relaxing at dinner.
High-end restaurants are about better ingredients, which is a good thing. Using local farmers and eating locally. No high-fructose corn syrup or GMOs (hopefully). The kind of food that all of us deserve, not just high-end earners.
They are also about trusting the chef, using very little of said ingredients for higher prices. The concept is if they charged $5 less per dish, the alleged value would diminish among those high-end earners. They may have to go home for dessert since they won't get enough to fill up at dinner but that is the sacrifice of high-end eating.
I've heard enough high-end restaurant owners talk about how accessible their places are. You don't have to wear a tie or a long dress to go but you still need money and lots of it. They aren't interested in you otherwise. As Sydney would say, that is the business model.
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Carmy and Michael (the dead brother) were very different people. Michael belonged in the Italian beef world while Carmy should be in the high-end world. The Bear shuts down Michael and then his world since there is only room for one and that is the high-end choice.
Places such as Original Beef are often there for decades, establishing loyalty and giving back to the neighborhood. High-end restaurants are not about loyalty, unless it's one-sided (customer to restaurant). They usually only last a few years before the owners get bored or burned-out or aren't making tons and tons of money. They don't care about the neighborhood. The land stays dormant until something else eventually comes along to fill the space.
Your humble narrator appreciates high-end food when delivered honorably. More and more, you can do almost as well at home without the pretense, small portions, or the dramatically high costs. With the money you save, you can treat yourself to an Italian beef sandwich: get it dunked in the jus and order the giardiniera, even if all they have is spicy.
Both seasons of The Bear are available on FX on Hulu.
Editor's note: If you are looking for a film that delves into the insanity of high-end restaurants, our sibling blog, CanadianCrossing.com would recommend Nose to Tail. The drama is intense but unlike The Bear, the drama feels real.
photo credit: The Bear
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