I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a restaurant a success. Sometimes there are obstacles that are truly obvious and tough to overcome.  At other times, at least from the patron's perspective, it's far more nebulous.

This weekend, I coerced a young person in her late teens to join me at a restaurant. Granted, it was January. Granted, it was at an odd time on an off day, so there weren't many people around. The food was fine, the service was perfectly adequate. But somehow, something wasn't clicking. 

As I puzzled about it afterward, I asked my lunch companion to describe the meal. She shrugged and said it was...."forgettable."

Forgettable! If I were the restaurant owner, it'd be a knife to the heart. But accurate. So much about the restaurant is the experience. A laugh, warmth, energy, the feeling of something special. Like so many things — perhaps everything — in life, it's all about winning hearts and minds.

January has gotten off to a bumpy start, food-wise. My soup research in the field has gone slowly. Looking into "Saigon Soup" at a nearby restaurant resulted in a tasty meal, but not much information. Then, I brought home the leftovers, forgetting to warn family members that there were two slices of jalapeño floating in the broth for spice. In the ensuing chaos, my daughter called to ask if there were wasps or hornets or something in the soup — something horrible and hot was working its way through her digestive system. We got hourly updates about its location. Okay, so next time I warn about the peppers.

And in a sort of related story, I stopped by my favorite backwater seafood (and game) store for lots of fresh seafood for bouillabaise. Not that it goes in the dish, but the big news is that coon and beaver are up to $15 (per animal, not per pound, heaven forbid). When will the madness end?