Brian and I usually won’t go to the popular restaurants in town, mostly for the reason that we don’t like to wait long and get uncomfortable in a packed house.
A new place opens and becomes the rage, or some place makes a “best of” list, Hops Burger Bar on Lawndale in Greensboro, for example. We see the crowds packing the sidewalk for months, sometimes for over a year. I have little interest in getting into that scene.
We prefer the places that are not very popular anymore, that are like faded flowers, maybe. A few are borderline dumps. As long as the sanitation grade is good and seems believable, that’s where we like to go.
This article made me think of this post:
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/portland/stanichs-closed-will-it-reopen-burger-quest
Fuenteovejuna did it 