a color story: the brown bag
We visited a fish and chips spot in our local town. It was under new management and they sold kebobs. Impressed with our earlier visit fish and chips, we tried out the pork kebab pita sandwiches and the dinner variety- one came with the fries and the latter with a Greek salad. We had the food for takeout.
After a 15 minute wait, I observed the typical takeout packaging as there was nothing else to do. The fries held in a white cardboard box. The pita sandwiche wrapped in the insulated paper. And my dinner entrée placed in the square white Styrofoam square box.
Was the brown bag the most colorful aspect to my meal?
But, the shop used a premium simple brown bag to carry the food. This was a premium feature used by places like Whole Foods, Chipotle or any salad bowl chain. With the notorious small margins in the food business in mind, a premium cost was always noticeable. The white plastic bag wasn't apparent in this takeout situation.
Tough times for the restaurant industry alluded to diversifying the business strategy. Dining-in turned into a risky event. Take-out felt appropriate. Back home, I felt the urge to carry the brown bag filled with our lunch. Instead of eating it at our usual outdoor spot, the food deserved the finer patio table. The premium outer shell of the food packaging overdelivered the food experience as we slowly unraveled our meal.
My kebab dinner didn't have the salad and I didn't want to annoy the shop about it. I didn't have the energy to bring my inner "Karen" out of me. The greens and the colors usually brought out a better eating experience. But I enjoyed the huge portions with the pork kebabs. Juicy, tender, and a slight char were all the features I looked for. Did I mention the tzatziki sauce - only if they added mint would I be convinced of its house made state? For now, I engorged the protein in the yogurt; my inner 'Karen' was still fussy about the salad situation. A brown recyclable bag usually complimented with a nice green salad.
The clean up was simple. We placed the packaging inside the brown bag. There was no mess involved- I noticed how messy a plastic bag could get. Then, I stepped back in and placed the brown bag beside the trash bid. The lingering pork kebab and my fascination with the takeout bag lingered an impression of possible gentrification in our town (pictured). Or do I not do enough takeout in the town- my sample size for my observations were quite small? Or was my fascination apparent in the bag itself? Was the brown bag the most colorful aspect to my meal?
Later on the day, I didn't feel a food fatigue. I didn't over eat and didn't feel a sense of environmental sustainability guilt. I continued my day working on the placeholder project and the missing salad situation didn't live rent-free in my head- other than writing about it.