Friday, October 03, 2008

Restaurant Names

I'm going to go off on a rant at some point here, so you are forewarned.

Mr Minx and I are heading to Ocean City in October for a long weekend. I was never a big fan of OC in the summertime (I don't like to bake my brains in the hot sun, hate hot weather to begin with, am not all that fond of looking at flabby, sunburned people in bathing suits, plus there are children running around all over the place) but I do enjoy going there in the off-season to walk the boards and do some outlet shopping.

Several years back, we had a particularly fruitful dining experience in OC, finding both Yokozuna (in the Gold Coast Mall) for terrific sushi, and Iguana Surf for interesting cuisine that included stuff like wild boar. The latter restaurant closed, so I recently started perusing the Internet for other dining options in the area that might be more creative than the usual JR's ribs and Lombardi's pizza.

And what did I find?

Places with names like "Nantuckets," "Fresco's," "Castaway's," "Magnolia's." WHY are so many restaurant names either plural or possessive? I have a strong suspicion that many of the possessive names are plain old bad grammar; the proper use of an apostrophe has become a lost art in this country. Otherwise, is there really someone named Fresco? Or does the name refer to a style of painting that involves paint and wet plaster, in which case "Frescoes" would be a more appropriate spelling? And just how many places are there in the world called "Nantucket?" More than one, requiring a pluralization? Or did the restaurant simply forget the apostrophe, in which case I ask, "Nantucket's what?" Does the restaurant belong to someone named Magnolia? or to a castaway?

Needless to say, I will not be partaking of any of the "food's" served at these establishments. I hate to imagine the spelling on the menus. Mescaline, anyone?

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