I grew up in what can easily be described as a stereotypically California casual environment. Dress codes were non-existent, uniforms were totally alien, and I never called anyone by their last name until I got to college. When I had to address someone as "professor-or-mister so-and-so," it felt awkward and weird. My dad once bought ugly top-siders to begrudgingly visit the Harvard Club with a cousin, only to never touch them again.
But because of this lack of formality I love to dress up when given the rare chance. I'm not suggesting we return to the era of putting on suits and pillbox hats for air travel (though that would be sort of awesome), but I'm 100% with Frank Bruni on the issue of respecting restaurants' dress codes.
For younger diners and jacket-adverse diners to ask the Le Bernardins of the world to ditch their dress codes strikes me not as egalitarian but as slightly selfish, even solipsistic. It disregards the many diners whose preferred fancy-restaurant experience is one in which the people around them are at least somewhat dressed up; in which the beauty of the room and the elegance of the service are matched by a certain sartorial polish; in which torn jeans aren’t in view and flip-flops aren’t even imaginable.
Places that fit this description are few in New York, and are practically non-existent in Los Angeles. Does anyone here have a dress code? Maybe Melisse, Bastide, or La Cachette? I hope someone does, for chrissake. Dude, I'm getting old.
It does lend a sense of occasion. I once had the good fortune to be taken to Le Bernardin and I daresay the experience would have been diminished in some way, had I been in jeans. (I say this guiltily as someone who frequently attends the opera in shorts.)
Posted by: G.F. | July 03, 2008 at 04:02 AM
I bumped into a dress code the last time I was in New Jersey and had to make do with eating in the bar. So sad. And I've been to a few places in Orange County that had dress codes too.
But while on the East Coast dress codes serve to fulfill a certain sense of decorum, here in Southern California they just feel really pretentious to me.
Except for the Huntington. High tea at the Huntington Gardens is CLASSY.
Posted by: Ben A | July 03, 2008 at 08:24 AM
It's true that dress code seems less in keeping with California style, but I'd think if the atmosphere were elegant enough, it should demand the same from its patrons, because they're part of the experience for others.
Went back to my New England prep school this spring and was appalled by the decline of dress code there... kids wearing shorts and sweatshirts to class! Hardly a tie to be seen! What is the world coming to?
Posted by: Cicely | July 03, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Several places in NYC are strict about the jacket policy, and a few of them even enforce the tie. (I remember two friends and I all being forced to wear the unbelievably ugly house ties at Lespinasse one evening when we were all rocking basically the then-downtown uniform of black suit/tab-collar silk shirt. You could have seen those ties on Mars.)
The last time I remember being required to wear a jacket in L.A., though, was at Trader Vic's back in the 1970s. Even at places like Melisse and Cut, ties are rare.
Posted by: j gold | July 09, 2008 at 11:59 AM
nice to see my hero j gold posting on the blog. regarding dress codes, I say dress however you like. I personally love dressing up for dinner, including tie and jacket and don't feel bad at all if I do so.
I remember eating with my friends recently at Porterhouse Bistro, a relatively upscale place in Beverly Hills and many of us were wearing white undershirts and basketball shorts! (I didn't care really, but I was dressed in khakis and button down). The restaurant didn't care but we had bad service. Go figure. And we spent nearly $450 dollars too.
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