Father’s day was this past weekend and it was a great one for me. The best moment of the weekend was seeing my daughter in a semi-professional production of Neil Simon’s “Little Me”, a musical spoof on the “rags to riches to depression” with some hilarious twists. It was put on by a group called the Children’s Theatre Project, the brain child of Howard Kane, a former Broadway performer, director and teacher. He took 15 bright kids, all between 13 and 16 years of age and put on a production that any producer anywhere would have been proud of.
My daughter didn’t have a huge part, in fact she had about seven small parts, but was on stage speaking lines for a good 75% of the production and she did brilliantly. They did two shows, and my family went to the first of those two shows, which were performed at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts, in midtown Toronto, (formerly the North York Centre for the Performing Arts). The entire cast was amazing.
During her second show, which I did not attend, my son, my wife and I spent a little quality time together having dinner at Baton Rouge. I happen to like that particular restaurant, and its one my son likes as well. This particular occasion they had some seafood specials on which made my wife happy. But as I sat waiting for the food to come I noticed something; something done very intentionally. This Baton Rouge looked exactly the same as every other one. Now this isn’t new; every franchise ever has done that – take something that works and duplicate it over and over. McDonalds was among the first to do it, but even places like The Keg, Hi’s Steak House, Kelsey’s, they all do the same thing. That way, wherever you go that has a copy of their restaurant, you can always expect the same thing.
But I find that a little odd. It makes the assumption that every community is the same and has the same tastes. I suppose there is a hint of truth to that – after all, every one of these chains is successful, as are the massive plazas they usually locate themselves in. And certainly having the same menu is convenient, that way I can go to any Kelsey’s and have the same thing I had the last time. Again.