The end of the original

Initially, I didn't think that the news of Stephenson's Old Apple Farm Restaurant closing down was that important . . . I never ate there so I didn't understand the charm of the place.

However, upon thinking about the topic more and reading one or two wonderfully sentimental thoughts from lovely local bloggers I think there is a greater trend at work.

The closing of a real Kansas City area country kitchen in the face of popular restaurants like "Country Kitchen" and "Bob Evans" seemingly doing just fine causes me to realize that it truly is a post-modern world we live in . . . Why bother seeing Venice anymore when the Venetian hotel and casino is so much more affordable and safer to visit? The same goes for just about any attraction from Paris to local "neighborhood" restaurants that are actually nothing more than a corporate chain occupying every corner where McMansions are fabricated.

So, as places like Stephenson's drop off one by one across the area I'm not exactly sad because their meaning is still intact but has been repurposed and reproduced much more efficiently at many more locations only with more Mexicans working in the kitchen. Of course there is always something lost in the replication but until they figure out how to run a business on sentiment (like that for the physical product used to deliver music -- thanks so much RIAA) then I'm afraid that news of an end of an era will be pretty much business as usual.