Something About Books and Covers

I can appreciate a good paradox, an ironic juxtaposition and a thoughtful fusion of disparate elements as much as any man.  That said, I was mildly skeptical when told to show up to the Chicago location of Sushi Samba on Wells St Saturday.  Going into it, I knew only that Chef Dan, the EC, was a fellow Napervillian, and what I gleaned from the corporate website.  While the former was encouraging, the latter managed to incorporate virtually every distasteful website attribute I can think of--obnoxious music, less than intuitive navigation, and in-your-face yet pointless animated graphics.  Mike can offer a more substantive critique from a professional perspective, but the web design, and, frankly, much-though-not-all of the posted menu reinforced to me the idea that I was about to enter an uber-hip, there-to-be-seen club atmosphere that, while I realize is some people’s legitimate cup of tea (and may well be yours), hovers somewhere between utter disinterest and polite contempt for me.  Perhaps at the root was that I can think of few more incompatible schools of culinary thought than Japanese and Latin.  I like them both, but don’t want to enjoy either in any close proximity to the other; the essential elements of each struck me as fundamentally destructive to the important elements of the other.  But in the hands of professionals, perhaps I’d be proven wrong.

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