Why Restaurants Matter: An Owner's Plea for the Place-Building, Democracy-Stabilizing, Love-Kindling Power of Eating Together in Real Life

Why Restaurants Matter is a heartfelt plea—told by the unlikeliest of restaurateurs—for the warmth of the hearth, the unifying spirit of hospitality, and the power of public eateries to build community.

You’re hungry. And, if not, you will be soon.

Does it matter if you get your spring rolls from a ghost kitchen instead of the joint on the corner?

Erin Wade thinks it does.

Wade opened her first restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2008, when phone books were still a thing, and “farm-to-table” was not a cliché. A former fashionista turned farmer, with virtually no restaurant experience, she made no sense in the breakneck business of food.

But when her restaurant Vinaigrette grew busier than she ever expected—it "got slammed,” in industry-speak—Wade got schooled. Why Restaurants Matter follows her white-knuckle ride opening six restaurants in three cities over a decade. And, it’s the story of her education along the way in food and health, gleaned from serving hundreds of thousands of customers every year.

In that same decade, how her customers ate, socialized, and communicated changed radically but incrementally, making it hard to notice. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic cut a window onto a bleak future of food in which delivery apps take restaurants’ place in the zeitgeist and VC-funded ghost kitchens oust the mom-and-pop shops that provide access to a sliver of the American dream for millions. Wade realized that the very things restaurants were doing to adapt to modern life may be killing them.

In the spirit of Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan, Wade reminds reader-eaters that how we eat represents a vote on how the world is used. She argues that the decline of the independent restaurant, like the loss of the independent farmer in the last century, raises an urgent concern about the unregulated power of technology platforms, the future of our cities, the problems of food and waste and, even, the health of American democracy.