Are restaurants like the emergency room?

How does Chicago build its global-city status using its "culinary soft power"? It was a fascinating and revealing night, but not for the reasons you might think.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... olumn.html

I really like this thought, and I think we've had a lot of discussion about it -

It's not about finding a joint where they know your name, but about how they treat you when they don't know your name

though the emergency room bit was specifically about the idea that a restaurant should be restorative:

It's not about being entertained or blown away by a chef's artistry or innovation, she said, but about being restored, as surely as if you had been to a therapist or the emergency room.