The fault, dear Brutus, is not in ourselves, but in someone else's privilege.
LocoL is a progressive eatery in Oakland that is all about being prog, more than about the actual food. You're supposed to pay attention to the progressiveness of its politics. Not its food. But New York Times food critic Pete Wells paid attention to LocoL as a place where you actually eat.
"The chefs hope that their example of progressive labor practices, interior design attuned to the pulse of the city and cooking that shows responsibility for the health of both customers and the environment will spark a reformation of the fast-food industry," Wells writes, tipping the hat to the prog politics.
"What I didn’t expect before I ate at the branch here was that the big problem would turn out to be the food."
Wells really should have. That's how the left works.
This was less like chili than like a slightly spicier version of the meat sauce my corner pizzeria pours over penne. Supermarkets sell canned chilis that are seasoned more persuasively.
I ran into trouble ordering one of the other bowls.
“I’ll have the chicken noodle soup,” I said.
“It’s actually chicken no-noodle soup,” the woman at the counter answered, as nicely as possible. “It’s got rice, not noodles.”
It turned out there wasn’t any chicken in it, either.
Despite the backlash, Wells is as kind as he can be, again more for the politics one suspects.
The neighborhoods Locol is targeting have serious nutritional problems, from hunger to obesity, but the solution isn’t to charge people for stuff that tastes like hospital food. If Locol were a nonprofit, then institutional-quality cooking might be unavoidable. It is a restaurant, though, and it is run by two chefs who are famous for cooking food that people really, really want to eat. I had a hard time remembering that as I worked my way through Locol’s menu, where appeals to your appetite are about as scarce as chicken in the no-noodle soup.
The progs were not happy. And Roy Choi posted a bizarre response.
"The truth is that LocoL has hit a nerve. Doesn't mean all people love it, some hate it. But no one is indifferent by it. That's the spirit of LocoL. It has nothing to do with my ego. It's something bigger than all of us."
Pete Wells sounded rather patiently indifferent. Also one suspects that nothing is bigger than Choi's ego.
Pete Wells is a component to its DNA. His criticisms are a reflection of us and the nerve that LocoL touches. And our imperfections. Also the nerve of challenging the binary structure of privileged thought patterns and how life is not just about what's a success or failure, but some things are real struggles and growth journeys.
LocoL food is so bad that it becomes a component of your DNA? That's scary.
The privileged thought patterns of expecting food to taste good.
Also when your food tastes like hospital food... it's a failure. Not a personal growth journey.
"And all minorities aren't criminals either. And all hoods aren't filled with dangerous people either. But the pen has created a lot of destruction over the course of history and continues to.. He didn't need to go there but he did. That's why he's a part of LocoL. The power of this change and this nerve that it hits. It compelled him to write something he knows would hurt a community that is already born from a lot of pain and struggle."
When in doubt, cry racism. When your food is terrible, blame privilege. When your chicken noodle soup has no chicken or noodles... blame racism. That way you never have to take responsibility for anything.