If you haven't seen the second season of FX's The Bear, this might be a little bit of a spoiler. (Season 3 has already been streaming for months, so at this point, it's pretty much on you.)
Anyway, at one point in the dramatized journey from sandwich shop to Michelin buzz, cousin Richie spends a whole episode polishing forks. Literally. He's banished to a swanky restaurant in the city to learn what fine dining is all about. So, naturally, he's forced to get up at the crack of dawn to dry silverware. But not even all the silverware. Just the forks.
Yes, this is a television caricature, but there's a reason this resonates. For people in the fine dining world, there is no detail — or smudge — small enough to be overlooked. At first, Richie is convinced he's wasting his time. But by the end of the episode, he's connected the dots between a perfectly polished fork and a perfectly executed evening.
Restaurateurs around the Inland Northwest have learned the same lesson. They spend day and night trying to provide the very best experience for diners, from silverware to menus to that perfectly curated ambiance. Nothing escapes their attention. This year's Dining Out issue celebrates some of those details that guests may or may not consciously notice but that make our night out so much more memorable.
— ELIZA BILLINGHAM
