Just this week I posted pictures on the pre-grand opening VIP event at AnQi in South Coast Plaza, which came complete with red carpet, search lights, and fashion models strutting on a built-in runway. Contrast it with THIS PICTURE, which was the way Daily Express chose to advertise their opening a few weeks ago across the street from SCP.
Quite a different approach, to say the least, wouldn't you think? If the guy in the wolf mask and the handwritten cardboard sign doesn't give you a clue on what Daily Express serves, let me just cut and paste the description from their Facebook page:
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“A Gourmet EntrNe N Rotisserie Bar. Customers build their own meal N can select from many hot dishes N stews like Chicken Marsala, Empanadas, Lamb Stew or a Steak N Potato Stir Fry, plus 6 Rotisserie Meats N a fresh salad bar – All sold by the pound.”
Which one am I looking forward to trying? AnQi or Daily Express? Well, both! Regardless of fashion models or a guy in a wolf mask who could easily be mistaken for a panhandler, it's the food that will ultimately intrigue.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.