Thursday, December 29, 2005
Applebee's, North Olmsted, Ohio
The silverware at Applebee’s was surprisingly elegant, considering the location, food, and audience. I had the pleasure of dining at Applebee’s for lunch; the table was preset (with silver rolled in a paper napkin) with a luncheon fork and, rather inexplicably, a steak knife. The steak knife was of no worse quality than that on the table at Peter Luger’s, and the fork was far nicer than at many a fine Manhattan establishment.
Applebee’s selected a daring, three-pronged fork. Debates still rage between three- and four-prongers, with little hope of consensus being reached anytime in the near future. In fin-de-siècle Vienna, Joseph August Lux once argued that the three-pronged model was a more primitive form, seen in peasant households, and therefore the model to be emulated by cultured and sophisticated Europeans in search of an ideal, true form. In this respect, as in so many others, Lux remained in the minority. The three-prong fork, especially when laid next to a heavy, wooden-handled steak knife, does suggest barbarism (rather appropriate after all for someplace like Applebee’s) and recalls the shape of a grill fork. One could spear meat quite excellently with such a fork, although it is perhaps less suited to the chicken pot pie. It did have a satisfyingly elongated bowl, however, and the overall proportions gave it an elegance that is often missing in three-pronged models. Perhaps Lux was right.
The rest of the décor of this Applebee’s, which, I assume, is rather like every Applebee’s everywhere else (I suppose I could go to Times Square to test this theory, but, then again, I suppose I could just as easily get a lobotomy), really falls outside my area of expertise. It is more appealing than TGI Fridays, at least.
Applebee’s selected a daring, three-pronged fork. Debates still rage between three- and four-prongers, with little hope of consensus being reached anytime in the near future. In fin-de-siècle Vienna, Joseph August Lux once argued that the three-pronged model was a more primitive form, seen in peasant households, and therefore the model to be emulated by cultured and sophisticated Europeans in search of an ideal, true form. In this respect, as in so many others, Lux remained in the minority. The three-prong fork, especially when laid next to a heavy, wooden-handled steak knife, does suggest barbarism (rather appropriate after all for someplace like Applebee’s) and recalls the shape of a grill fork. One could spear meat quite excellently with such a fork, although it is perhaps less suited to the chicken pot pie. It did have a satisfyingly elongated bowl, however, and the overall proportions gave it an elegance that is often missing in three-pronged models. Perhaps Lux was right.
The rest of the décor of this Applebee’s, which, I assume, is rather like every Applebee’s everywhere else (I suppose I could go to Times Square to test this theory, but, then again, I suppose I could just as easily get a lobotomy), really falls outside my area of expertise. It is more appealing than TGI Fridays, at least.
