Aspirational Dining
I am a Mac guy. This means only the occasional interruption for updates from Microsoft. These are most often for Word for Macs. Yet in none of these updates have they added to my spell check dictionary words like “Barack Obama, Al Qaeda, or Facebook.â€Â If they do implement this change they can use this as my “Windows 27 was designed by me†testimonial. When they do develop this technology they should also add the word “aspirational†to my spell check.
The phrase “aspirational†has been used to describe many things you might find endorsed by Martha Stewart. It is used to describe the desires of people to own, do, and consume things they view as entitlements of the rich. Anything from a new luxury car to really expensive cheese can be labeled as “aspirational.â€Â They are the things we want even if we know they are not truly in our price range. These are the adult versions of that cool bike you thought would bring you a lifetime of happiness as a kid.
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When you said “premium steaks and seafood”, Capital Grille and Chart House were the chains that came to mind for me. They’re usually located in a high-traffic, touristy area where you would expect a majority of the patrons to be visitors and businessfolk.
Really, “aspirational” depends on where you’re at on the money ladder: as a teenager, my family’s “special” dinners were at Applebee’s.
This is true as well. If you make $40k a year, a $100 meal is proportionately the same as a $1000 meal to someone who makes $400k. My family went to Red Lobster for mom’s birthday when I was a kid. I remember telling my high school sweetheart to get dressed up and I was going to take her for a nice meal. She was unimpressed as we were the two most overdressed people in the Red Lobster lobby. I wonder how much of that was perception as a child and how much was them changing their concept.
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