How are video games like a French Dip sandwich?

September 2nd, 2012, 13:16 Posted By: wraggster

Phillipe's is a small fast food restaurant located in Los Angeles' Chinatown - although I think it predates most of the neighbourhood surrounding it. Phillipe's has been there since 1908, in fact, which makes it fairly venerable in local terms. It's an LA landmark, and it feels like it, too. You walk in, and it's dark and pleasantly grimy: you instantly feel like you're in on something good. It looks like a cop hangout or a favourite lunch spot for private eyes. I once asked my Dad whether his dad - who actually was with the LAPD between the 1930s and the 1950s - ever went there, but, being a richly and instinctively prejudiced man, Sergeant Donlan tended to avoid the place. You know, because of the French name.He was missing out. The other day, I went to Phillipe's with my aunt and uncle. I've wanted to go for ages. It's one of a couple of different places in the States that claims to have invented the French Dip sandwich, see, where the bun is soaked in gravy before serving. "Soaked in gravy" is one of those phrases you learn to listen out for in life. Long story short, I can confirm that the turkey French Dip, at the very least, is totally amazing, and the potato salad is even better. But there's something more to my visit than that, though. There's something about Phillipe's that got me thinking about video games.That's because, while the food is great, what's really special about Phillipe's is the way that it's kept old LA - and, to a certain extent, old America - alive. There's sawdust on the floor here, there are old pressed-tin advertisements for the railways on the walls, and there's a rack of wooden telephone booths in a corner, waiting, presumably, for Jimmy Stewart to pad over and drop a dime. The cashiers don't take plastic at Phillipe's; it's like they aren't yet comfortable that the whole idea of credit is going to stick. Instead, there's this complex ritual where you have to put your money in a marbled tray on the counter and then they take your tray away and quickly bring back your change. The plates aren't made of normal plate stuff, but of roughly pulped cardboard. The ladies behind the counter look like ladies out of a Gary Larson cartoon: weighty, bespectacled, crimp-lipped, full of knowledgeable disdain for their clientele. There are rituals, here. There is private terminology.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...h-dip-sandwich

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