“Our new people have been here for six or seven years, that’s ‘new people,’” Duner’s owner Bob Caldwell tells me over the phone. “Most nights, I know almost everybody in the room.”.
PHOTO BY RYAN HOOVER

When I find myself explaining my city to outsiders, I’m not just recalling the cosmopolitan restaurant scene, the organic locavore movement, or even the community’s infatuation with grocery stores.

I think of institutions, a handful of local restaurants where the cooks flatten hamburger buns, the cashier does magic tricks with spare change, and the owner visits tables to make sure customers are happy– after all, he started out as a line cook when his restaurant opened in 1983.

“Our new people have been here for six or seven years, that’s ‘new people,’” Duner’s owner Bob Caldwell tells me over the phone. “Most nights, I know almost everybody in the room.”

He estimates that his Ivy restaurant has served more than a million meals. He calls it a “neighborhood bistro,” I call it an institution.

An old friend and I met at Duner’s one Monday evening in February. It was early when we arrived, and the two small dining rooms and bar soon swelled with salt-and-pepper couples and ripe families around us. Our waitress appeared to sense that we were catching up after two years and slowed our meal to a leisurely gait. (more)

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If you haven’t had a chance to read Kate Malay’s review of TEN, be sure to take a look. It’s tasty!

“Metropolitan modern Japanese restaurants have put me in my place: bad tables at inconvenient times, with cheeky servers taking off-the-menu orders from nearby diners who have the “in.”

When Ten opened on Halloween two years ago, its understated sign and upstairs Downtown Mall location seemed to suggest that its m.o. was exclusivity. But once inside, one can appreciate the feeling of insulation from the drama of the outside world….” read on

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