Zen Den Bar and Grill: serving "prime choice" beef
April 16, 2009
I've complained about it before: restaurants butchering language, in general ("grille", "pizza's", etc.), and worse than that, butchering language to the point where they are possibly misrepresenting the quality of their beef. e.g., using words like "prime" to describe their steaks or burgers, steaks and burgers which are most likely not USDA Prime. "Aged" is a good one, and near meaningless unless prefixed with "dry-" or "wet-", as well.
But Teaneck's Zen Den Bar and Grill ("Grill", thankfully, without the "e" at the end - EDIT: although in other parts of the website, it does have an "e") puts a whole new twist on the butchering with their: "Prime choice Rib Eye".
So which is it? Is it Prime? Or is it Choice.
Why is it that people, who should know better, conveniently forget that words actually have, like, meaning? Why not take advantage of this whole language thing that has evolved over time and choose words that effectively communicate the thought that is in your head, or describe the meat that is in your walk-in? Why lazily throw random words together into a meaningless jumble? Do you have similar habits when it comes to cooking or managing a restaurant? This all, to me, tells the customer or potential customer that you either 1) don't care, or 2) don't know. Neither is acceptable.
And with the description of "grilled to perfection", it sounds as though a reviewer from one of those free local magazines supplied the verbiage.
Poke around the restaurant's website some more and you'll find "Mohito's" and "Cosmo's", tons of typos, poor grammar, and what appears to be a stock photo of a bacon cheeseburger, even though a bacon cheeseburger is not on the menu (edit: bacon is an option for $1.50).
Zen Bar and Grill : 252-254 DeGraw Ave : Teaneck, NJ : 201.692.0700