Chain chain chain

I have recently been obsessed with various chain restaurants. Don't know why...think it has something to do with being "in the know". Maybe wanting to be a city girl. Anyways.

Just had the most amazing lunch at the popular chain eatery The Cheesecake Factory. My companion and I started with the fried calamari- very good, and bonus points for two dipping sauces. I hate when they make you choose between cocktail or tartar. I like to alternate. The tartar sauce was very garlicky and fabulous. The cocktail sauce looked very much like ketchup, which is not a good quality for cocktail sauce, but I found it very enjoyable and with pleasant kick.

The main memory of the meal, however, was the "french country salad". Mixed greens, goat cheese, beets, candied pecans, asparagas, and an amazing viniagrette. It was the kind of salad that makes you happy, and you are glad that you are burping up the dressing all day because it is a good burp; not indigestion, but rather a gift throughout the rest of the day. Is that too gross? I could have done without the asparagas. I am not a fan and don't generally eat it, so I don't know what it is supposed to taste like. I tasted a smoky flavor that reminded me of an old man. I do not want to taste an old mad.

Clearly, the asparagas did not ruin my perception of the salad, because I am still thinking about it. And it's pretty amazing that my favorite part of the meal was the salad, when the salad is competing with a fried item and a cheesecake item (which I got "to go" but ate immediately upon arriving home).

Maybe the good thing about a chain is that you can brag to your far away friends about what you had for lunch, but it's not like rubbing it in, because they can go to the same place at a convenient location near them?

Unlike the Roma's I had yesterday....you'd tote be jealous.