The Fancy Restaurant

Imagine, if you will, that in your city, town, whatever, there is a Fancy Restaurant.
People talk about it, people think about it, people hardly seem to get it out of their thoughts. It's in all the movies. This Fancy Restaurant is always being advertised, and sometimes other companies even allude to it in their own ads, just implying that the people in their ad are going there. In a word, everyone is obsessed with this Fancy Restaurant. It seems like the life goal of everyone is to eat at the Fancy Restaurant as much as possible.

But there's a catch: you need a reservation. And the reservations are expensive and take a lot of effort to get. Many people get jobs, or try to get better jobs, just so that they can get past the bouncer, and then it takes careful negotiating with the staff to actually secure a reservation.

"But why," you ask, "do I need to eat at the Fancy Restaurant? I can cook. It's far easier, cheaper, and less of a bother to just whip up something quick in my apartment when I get hungry."

"But nothing is as good as the Fancy Restaurant," they say. "Everyone wants to eat there."

"I don't," you say. "I'd rather not deal with the drama and politics of negotiating a reservation."

"Come on," they reply. "You must get hungry." They pull out a menu as if it's a trump card. "You shouldn't let negotiating a reservation scare you away from eating there; you don't know what you're missing!"

While the pictures of food do look like they'd taste good, it still isn't worth the effort, even the effort to drive to the Fancy Restaurant. It doesn't really look any better than what you cook for yourself, anyway.

"Even if I got a free reservation without any negotiation, I'd still probably say no," you reply.

"Even for the most beautifully plated dish?"

"Presentation doesn't change what it tastes like, does it?" you shoot back. "Besides, isn't there a salmonella outbreak there like every week?"

"Sure, but it's totally worth the risks to be able to eat at the Fancy Restaurant. You shouldn't let that scare you away!" they reply, latching onto that singular point.

"I don't want to eat there anyway, so why should I not hold the fact that I could end up in the hospital against it?"

"How can you know you're not interested in eating there if you've never tried it?" they push. "Everyone wants to eat there."

"I don't," you answer, "so clearly not everyone wants to."

"No, you want to," they inform you, "you just don't realize it yet. Or maybe you just know you couldn't get a reservation anyway, and are bitter."

"That's all wrong. I just don't want to. Isn't it enough for me to just say so?"

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