SE3: Food Values and Culture in LoDo

It’s 2 PM on a warm Sunday afternoon in a deli-style restaurant in Denver’s hip, upscale LoDo neighborhood. Even though this time of day typically sees a lull in customers, The Market is just as busy as ever. The restaurant is structured into two main parts- a lower level, where the front door is located, that has a counter that only serves coffee and pastries, and an upper level where customers can order from a plethora of sandwich, soup, and salad options, each type of food being at a separate counter. There are only a few small tables in the lower level, with most of the seating being around the deli counter. The people inside aren’t the only thing that makes the restaurant busy- the décor includes shelves lining the walls, filled with bottles and packages of old-time foods and seasonings. Much of the space not occupied by food counters, soda fountains, or silverware stations has racks of products for sale- candy, tea, and other odds and ends. At first glance, this eatery seems fairly typical, but further analysis of the people, food, and atmosphere leads to a broader observation about food values and culture.

The majority of the people that come in to the lower part of the restaurant to go to the coffee counter are alone or with one other person, and an overwhelming majority of them take their coffee to go, spending minimal time inside the restaurant and instead getting their caffeine fix to go and moving on with their day. This reflects the rather obvious value that people place on convenience. Being able to grab a cup of good coffee on their way somewhere else is obviously a common value of The Market’s clientele, based on the line at the coffee counter that doesn’t ever get any shorter. The more interesting observations, though, lie in the upper part of the restaurant. More people here are sitting down and eating their food, and the majority of them are couples, groups of friends, or families. The most noteworthy thing about it, though, is the feel of the restaurant as a whole. The customers, employees, and atmosphere come together to create a very cozy, casual, local-feeling environment. This is present in the customers because through careful observation, it appears that almost everyone coming in is familiar with the place, or if they aren’t, they are with a person who is. In fact, a friend of mine who lives a few blocks away came with me on this day, and she was new to The Market. She said that the ordering system was very confusing –a person orders at one counter, and then meets their food and cashier at another- and had I not been there with her, she wouldn’t have known what to do. Most people linger after their meals, too, talking with their friends and perhaps sipping a cup of coffee they’ve gone to the lower counter to obtain. The employees also reflect the value of community, because all of them seem to be very close, chatting and laughing behind the counter, and not taking their job too seriously. Several employees recognize each other, providing further proof of the existence of regular customers. All the employees are friendly and talkative with the customers, as well. The nature of the restaurant itself lends itself to this idea, too. Most of the products for sale are natural, organic, and most importantly, local. There’s a large emphasis on the fact that the honey, chocolate, or teas on display come from Colorado. Historical photos of Downtown Denver cover the walls. Furthermore, directly above the silverware, where anyone grabbing a fork would be bound to see it, is an odd decoration- an obituary. Framed and prominently displayed, this obituary tells of the life and passing of the founder of The Market. This signifies the close connection that the small business still has with its owner, and that his passing is something customers would be interested in, too.

All of these observations come together to form a conclusion about what the residents of Lower Downtown Denver value about the places they eat, and that’s an emphasis on community. The casual, low-key vibe of the restaurant, coupled with its obvious roots in Denver’s history and the fact that almost all customers seem to be repeats or regulars support this statement. There’s a value placed on authenticity, which is consistent with what one would probably expect from the residents of this area. A mostly young crowd that can accurately be described as hipsters are the people who mainly populate LoDo, and the values of family-owned and local are ones that resonate with them. But it’s important to note that the Market isn’t high-brow in any way; although it may have organic, local products and a customer base that values such things, it’s affordable and casual. Maybe, then, the authenticity of The Market that appeals to people is the kind that Freedman and Jurafsky posit in their potato chip analysis. “For the working class, authenticity is rooted in historicity, including family tradition, the model of a company as a family business with an explicit founder, and regional American locations” (Freedman and Jurafsky 52). This model seems to fit The Market fairly well- there is definitely an emphasis on Denver history and that of the restaurant itself, including its founder. The class distinctions fit fairly well, too, as the young clientele eating at an affordable deli would probably fall into the middle or working class. Why, exactly, do people value authenticity? In an interesting paper on the authenticity of food by Glenn Carroll and Dennis Wheaton, they postulate 3 main reasons:

“First, fascination with authentic products made by traditional methods might reflect a reaction against the perceived loss of a personalized self in contemporary mass society, in its production techniques and its corporate organizations… Second, individuals may be engaging in self- expression in purchasing the products of small, obscure producers who are not widely known… Third, individuals may be using authenticity as a forum for status generation” (Carroll and Wheaton 12). When these motivations are compared to the clients of The Market, it actually makes a lot of sense. As previously established, the young, hipster crowd are the primary consumers of food in LoDo. Self-expression and the rejection of corporations are known principles of this type of people, and they go hand in hand with eating at a family-owned, local restaurant such as the one examined in this paper. All of the observations and inferences here lead to the acceptance of the conclusion that in the community of the younger, more hip part of Downtown Denver place high value on community, authenticity, and local origins in their food.

Sources

Carroll, Glenn R., and Dennis Ray Wheaton. "The Organizational Construction of Authenticity: An Examination of Contemporary Food and Dining in the U.S." Research in Organizational Behavior (2009): 1-78.

Freedman, Joshua, and Dan Jurafsky. "Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 11.4 (2012): 46-54.