Listen, I love Just Salad, Cava, Sweet Green and Poke Works just as much as any other girl but what happened to our local restaurants? Driving down post road, it has become increasingly obvious that westport has been infected with corporate chains replacing smaller restaurants. Yes, it is fun to keep up with the food trends and be able to enjoy the “trendy” food spots but at what cost?
For one, the food from these places, although marketed as healthy, are still over processed and often frozen and then thawed to serve. Their ingredients and produce are often shipped from a warehouse far away. For example, Cavas’ factory where they produce their food is in Verona, Virginia. In order to keep their produce as fresh as possible, they add unnecessary chemicals and preservatives, such as calcium chloride,which is used for firmness in vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes. Overall, the large scale of this food production leads to less fresh and less clean eating.
Going to these salad bars and bowls places is like walking into a factory, pumping out many bowls a minute. The servers are often more focused on quantity over quality of each bowl. Your food is being rushed to finish, in a sloppy and imperfect manner. Going to Sweet Green, there is like a 50/50 shot your bowl is what you asked for. The quality of the food is just not like the quality of a local restaurant.
(Alexis Jacobs )
By now, I bet you have heard that the popular ice cream company Van Leeuwen’s opened downtown. This will be the third ice cream store downtown; competing with small local businesses Cold fusion andLa Fenice Gelateria. These ice cream shops are small family owned businesses and might have trouble keeping up with the corporate, large scale shop. Yes, Van Laurence is delicious but I would much rather support a small, locally owned ice cream shop.
Westport is seeing less and less local restaurants and more and more chains. I think it is important to support the local businesses in our town. Trust me, they are usually better!
