Scratch-made pizza, al fresco dining, craft brews, and The Bachelorette

Last night I night I worked my typical summer-school's-out job: cooking a couple/few night shifts a week, these past two summers in a well-known Old Town pizza parlor and bar, with a large outdoor patio, which does HUUUUUGE business in the summer, here in Chicago. Located in a pretty upscale part of town, this restaurant knows its clientele, really well.

So it shouldn't be THAT surprising that on Monday nights they drum up business by showing the current episode of The Bachelorette. Groups of primarily Caucasian, upper/middle class friends meet up at the place specifically to get drunk, eat pizza and pub food, and yes. . . watch The Bachelorette, which I believe is now two hours long every week. As they watch, we in the kitchen can hear their drunk screams of approval and disapproval at Whatever The Hell is Happening on The Bachelorette as though it were a sporting event. You can totally tell, that, for these folks, going to this place to get drunk and watch The Bachelorette is A Thing. Heart-shaped pizzas are served with heart-shaped pepperoni. I am told some of the customers actually bet money on specific outcomes. I find it, for some reason, especially troubling that some of the servers are actually quite into it too.

This place does really good business on The Bachelorette, which shows on Monday, and that's fantastic from a restauranteur's perspective as this is usually the slowest night of the week.

I know we live in a decadent society, but the scene at this place for The Bachelorette night really drives it home. These people get together and arrange their social lives around going to watch a tv show that is an obviously scripted, fake-reality relationship derby that makes a pathetic mockery of the notions of love, romance, and marriage. (I hate that they call it "reality tv," as if ANYONE'S reality looked anything like The Bachelorette.) Yet these folks eat it up. And there is good money in catering to these folks, as far as the higher ups at this restaurant group are concerned. To a not-insignificant portion of our population, this counts as a meaningful way to pass time with friends and loved ones.

I struggle a little, as I am personally profiting off of it in terms of paid wages. If this place weren't going gangbusters on The Bachelorette Mondays, they might not need FOUR PEOPLE, just to work the pizza station. (The pizzas are scratch made and pretty good, so I will stand by the food.)

But still, I can't help but notice that our society is broken. It's possible we deserve whatever may be coming. Unfortunately I do think we are past due for a "correction" which will likely be very painful for many, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. I wouldn't mind if The Bachelorette went down in flames as a result.

We live in weird, interesting, but also painful and messed up times.