Hacker News Reader

Comment by blakesterz | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure if this is a real site or not... but let's assume it is, what's the deal with "Stop waiting in line for brunch"? I get the commute and own your own home things, these seem like BIG deals in life. Is standing in life for brunch really the 3rd biggest problem with living in the Bay Area or is this an inside joke or something like that? Everything I know about living around there I've learned from HN and I don't think I've ever seen someone complain or even joke about troubles at brunch.

View on HN

> Is standing in life for brunch really the 3rd biggest problem with living in the Bay Area

It's not a problem. More another manufactured nuisance of the kind San Francisco seems to enjoy creating.

New Yorkers have brunch later, brunch boozier and--broadly speaking--brunch with a reservation. San Franciscans (or at least my friends in San Francisco) eat brunch at the crack of dawn at establishments that prefer lines out the door to taking reservations. (They may claim to take "reservations" at the door. Those aren't reservations. They're names on a wait list. Lots of waiting.)

It's a cultural factor loosely related to (a) recent population and affluence increases outstripping a locale's (b) ability to build new businesses in the midst of (c) a greater value placed on exclusivity than time. (It's also present in Brooklyn and parts of Los Angeles.)

I'm a software engineer at a FANG, in a VHCOL city...and I feel completely out of touch with whatever cultural circles these people live in.

> We are three former Googlers who are on a mission to help create jobs in rural and suburban cities around America.

Ok, yeah, that explains it

Could you please explain how that explains it to someone who needs more explanation?

I'm also a software engineer allegedly in the same cultural circles as these folks...but this brunch reference is honestly baffling to me to an extent that it makes me wonder if I even am in the same class as these folks. I've never even been to brunch!

For anyone like me who hasn't seen the VHCOL acronym before: Very High Cost Of Living.

And what is FANG? and why are acronyms so overused in an UCC (unlimited characters context)?

Facebook Amazon Netflix Google (normally another a as in FAANG, but I forgot what that is)

Apple

Last A is Apple

Having a line out the door also serves as a sort of free advertising for the restaurant. If people are willing to line up and wait for their brunch, it must be good, right?

> If people are willing to line up and wait for their brunch, it must be good, right?

That, itself, tells you about the local culture.

A culture that responds positively to a line out of the door puts a lot of value on trendiness. This is (much of) San Francisco. (It's not true across the Bay Area.)

A culture that responds neutrally or negatively to a line out of the door either responds less aggressively to trend pressure and/or has fewer supply-side restrictions. This is New York. A line out of the door in New York tells me it's a new place that's still getting its act together, there's an event there that night, they're filming or it's a shitshow.

Actually, I appreciate the places that don't take reservations for brunch. The number of prospective patrons is wildly out of proportion to the number of really good brunch spots. If they took reservations, you wouldn't be able to get in for a month to a place like Plow.

Instead, I can grab a coffee (or mimosa) while I stand outside chatting with my friends or wander around the neighborhood.

If you want convenience, there are plenty of places that take reservations or can take walk-ins immediately. Some of them are pretty damn good too.

And there's always the "hidden gems" like Wayfare Tavern that only started doing brunch recently, so no line-ups yet.

File London under this too, the majority of 'upper mid range' or 'cool' places to eat now are, turn up, sign up to waiting list, come back in 30mins-2hr

at least they text you when your table is ready!

You could be in a smaller city and have next to no cool places, and have an even bigger line at those fewer cool places.

Then leave for the smaller, but still not short, line at Waffle House instead because it turns out no matter where you are, meal-time rushes are a thing...

Or you could, you know, make breakfast for your friends. I don’t really get the brunch lines thing. Most of the food is pretty easily made in even a minimal kitchen. (And bread can be bought the day before.)

I mean, this isn't just brunch around here. A dinner spot that would be one step above counter service in a larger city can have a line out the door in a smaller one because there's just that much less competition

I'm guessing people in tiny apartments may not be able or willing to deal with a bunch of friends crowding it in the morning. Or maybe they don't live near each other, so they'd rather brunch near the office. Or would rather brunch during a work pause, rather than before getting to the office.

What working people have brunches with friends during the week--except perhaps on a very rare basis?

I'll grant the tiny apartments but I'll also observe that, in undergraduate, we had space for a sizable number of people in a shared kitchen area. If where you live once you start working in a tech job is a downgrade from college, personally I consider that a problem.

"Brunch" at the crack of dawn is just breakfast, no?

And do denizens of SF/SV eat brunch mid-week on a regular basis?

Here in DC, it's typically a Sunday late-morning thing, which aligns with the British origins of the term. Reservations suggested for swankier establishments.

I assume this is a joke about millenials and brunch. Kind of like how millenials can't afford houses because they spend too much money on avocados

I believe the meme is “avocado toast” — a perfect brunch!

I think it's meant to be a synecdoche for all of the bad parts of living in a crowded metropolis.

It honestly seems like a Brooklynite's take on urban woes, without understanding that brunch isn't nearly as big a deal in the Bay Area as it is there.

It's not a problem here.

Seriously.

Name the last time you went to brunch. Now name the last time you were so upset at a brunch line that it inspired you to bitch about it online, let alone make it a part of your job-sites pitch...

It's also just volume of spots, and walkability/ease of transport between them. I made a mistake and tried to get brunch at 11am in Bushwick recently, the place didn't open till noon. I walked a few minutes and just got it somewhere else.

By 1pm there was a wait, but for the first three hours that spot is open, no big deal at all.

It's about waiting in line for everything you have to wait in line for.

heh last time I stood in line for brunch was in Nashville. There are all sorts of pros/cons wherever you go. I’ve lived in Charlotte, Denver, Chicago, Austin, New York and have traveled enough to places like La, SF, London, etc that I don’t need maps to get around and know many of the neighborhoods fairly well. I don’t have a 6 horse barn like the person above but we did move a bit further out and have a pretty decent chunk of property but I can still be at one of several airports in around an hour. What would I change? I’d be closer to family. My wife and I both grew up as transplants in towns that were separate from our extended families. We don’t know what it’s like to walk down the street to visit grandma. Or having lots of siblings and cousins nearby. I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance who bought a house for his daughter and fiancé to renovate. He and his extended family own close to twenty houses in a neighborhood together - I’m sure they have a whole other set of issues being that close but I’d be happy if close was like a two hour drive or less rather than an all day flight a few times a year. Give that some thought. in my view it almost doesn’t matter where you live. Everything has something nice to like and something you won’t like.

There's a joke I like to make at Burning Man when I see lines for dumb shit: If I wanted to wait in line I would've went to San Fransisco.

having never been to burning man.. what are there lines for at burning man?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com