Dinner from a bygone era.......

The Restaurant from the Holiday inn, Carbondale.

I was watching Robert Irvine’s Show, “Restaurant Impossible”, in which he attempts to save America’s most desperate restaurants from impending failure in just two days with a budget of $10,000. One of the facts that became clear after watching a number of these shows was that the “good old days” are not good, just old. Clearly, customers and chefs alike hate the trappings of the past. Old fashioned ideas and dishes are clearly not often available in successful restaurants nor not often desired.


I know as well as anyone that food trends change, and today’s popular places are gone as soon as something new comes along. They make fun of styles that look like the 70’s or 80’s even though for some of us who were adults in those times, the food or service was what we got used to and can, in fact, sometimes miss.

The most glaring example for my wife and I was the disparaging way they treated chateaubriand (for two) and Caesar salad made at the table, declaring that a waste of time for the server and the diner.

I was reminded of a time many years ago (sometime in the 90’s), when I went with my old friend John Slorp, the then President of either the Memphis College of Art or the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, depending on when we were there together on an accreditation visit to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, IL. I was either the Dean of CCS or President of one of the schools, but I do know we were together at SIU and it was a NASAD accreditation visit.

We stayed in an old hotel, my first guess was that it was a Hilton, but I checked and they have a Holiday Inn Conference Center so that must have been it.

After the visit had ended, and we were finished our work, we decided to have dinner together in the hotel restaurant. It was dated, it was quiet and we were among a few diners that evening. The waiters were tuxedoed, a far from “normal” thing, but it was a bit of faded elegance they were trying to achieve.

John and I, while kidding around before dinner and having drinks, decided to have everything they could make at our table for dinner. The menu therefore was spelled out in simple terms. We had a Caesar salad, Steak Diane and Cherries Jubilee!

The waiters were delighted, as they got to show off their best server qualities, and they all participated as these three dishes tool the expertise of all the staff. As well, we were big diners who left a large tip because of the beautiful service we received.

Dinner was great, the salad fresh and garlicky, the steak was tender and delicious and the dessert was “over the top”!

Yes, it was a one time display of gluttony, but it harkened back to a bygone era of elegant service and charming meals.

I know Robert Irvine attempts to save America’s most desperate restaurants from impending failure by bringing them out of the past, but sometimes a look at the past is a wonderful thing.