Balancing Trends and Tradition in Smaller Market Fine Dining
Emerging trends in fine dining can be very tricky in a number of ways. For one, simply identifying what those trends are taking place is difficult. In some cases, they can emerge, be the rage for a few months, and then disappear completely. Even more difficult, and more important by far, is accurately identifying which trends deserve to taken seriously and incorporated into a menu and which are flash-in-the-pan fads customers will lose interest in after a month. That can be particularly true for restaurateurs and their customers outside of the major metropolises. After all, the fine dining dynamic of New York City and the culture of fine dining Boise supports can be quite different. That’s not to say that Boise is underrepresented by excellent restaurants or even by culinary innovation. Just the opposite, in fact, but smaller markets aren’t as equipped to support a wide collection of high-end, niche restaurants capitalizing on a recent trend. That can make incorporating trends in