It's a good filtering system. Comments like "Real ______ never do this" reek of elitism and pretentiousness. It usually also denote's someone who just got into the scene of whatever it is they are prattling on about. One of the first things you learn (or should learn anyway) when you open a restaurant is: never scoff at the ways people enjoy their food and drink. No matter how counterintuitive it may appear. If that's what they want and they are paying for it; who am I to criticize? And sometimes some of the off the wall shit they suggest is brilliant. Nope, life is too short to go around looking down on others because they enjoy a well done Niman ranch filet or cocktail sauce with their oysters. And cocktails using Scotch? Nothing wrong with that. Just a different way of enjoying a drink.It's one of my secret ways I decide whether I shouldn't ever talk to someone again, actually.
Fine dining. Worked in some fast food and chain places as a teen. Went to culinary school (never go to culinary school). Worked in a couple of casinos, worked in a super crazy restaurant that should have been fine dining and was... in the 50's, then I worked at a real fine dining place, then another, then another. Then opened my own place with 2 friends/business partners. At my place we did what they call California cuisine (which is just a seasonal menu using fresh ingredients, apparently that was such a novel idea in the 80's that it required it's own name). I based my menu on classical french techniques with a fairly broad Mediterranean influence. I incorporated stuff from France, Spain, Italy, Germany as well as Morocco, Greece, Lebanon. Are you into dining?