[graciegirl]

I know of one couple, born in New York, who lived a long time in Seattle who then moved here and moved back to Seattle and the reason they gave is that they could not find restaurants that they enjoyed in The Villages.

I think I know the difference between mundane and spectacular when it comes to food, but every single person has different standards on judging excellence in food.

There used to be the five star restaurants that everyone knew was the epitome of wonderful and the prices were much more than a person with average income would pay very often. And then there were the awfully good ones that people would pay to visit once a month or so and then there are the decent restaurants where alcohol is served and the decent restaurants where alcohol is not served. Whether alcohol is part of your enjoyment of your dining experience is important and will affect the price of menu items.

Then there are the people who manage all of the restaurants and the people who work in all of them. Some people can take premade entrees and serve them well and accompany them with crisp, clean salads and well seasoned interesting vegetables and get them to the table hot and cold and are able to please enough people and keep them moving through enough to be a financial success when the business is excellent for four months out of the year and they must let go of help during the other eight months. It is a tricky business and it requires a lot of skill and a lot of hard work and a lot of hours if you are the person running it and staffing it. I don't think the pay is all that great either.

The Villages has an interesting mix of inhabitants, but I would say that most eat out more, some much more than they used to. Most everyone has planned for retirement and some people ended up with more "disposable" income than others. Some want to spend it on food, some on travel, some on their homes, some on leaving a legacy to their kids and some want to see that they spend their last dollar and their last breath on the same day.

I don't know whether any of this is right or wrong, or whether we can blame anything or anybody when the restaurants here don't measure up to our expectations. Water reaches it's own level, and businesses survive or fail based on whether they can gauge the customers wants and needs accurately. If a person is not happy with something and they cannot effect change, then they may have to go where they can get what they want.