Signs the Apocalypse is upon restaurants

Exhibit A: A Nebraska woman posted an offer on eBay to sell a Chicken McNugget she’d saved from three years ago because it looked exactly like George Washington in profile. The deep-fried presidential lookalike fetched a winning bid of $8,100. But the winner backed out. Now, according to media reports, the seller is considering whether to accept the second-highest bid, a mere $8,000, or to put it on the block again.

Exhibit B: McDonald’s says sales at U.S. restaurants open for at least 12 months increased year-over-year by an average of 11.1% in February, and that worldwide comps jumped 7.5%. That prompted stock traders to sell their shares, citing the disappointing results.

The clincher: A food writer for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald touched off an online firestorm by reviewing the town’s new Olive Garden. Urbanites (no doubt dressed all in black) posted it on various article-sharing sites so fellow elitists could share the hilarity of a mass-market chain concept being the subject of a serious restaurant review. Some posed the possibility in feedback forums of the review actually being a put-on from The Onion.

But as the reviewer pointed out, with more tact and class than her snobby disparagers deserved, Grand Forks doesn’t abound in restaurants, and locals wonder where they should eat. The 86-year-old writer, Marilyn Hagerty, should get the last laugh. Her well-written and useful column drew 107,000 views in a town of fewer than 55,000 residents. She may not eat at David Chang’s or Grant Achatz’s places every week, but she’s serving her audience.