I’ve never been much for fancy restaurants: I can’t justify the cost. I like looking at the cooking competitions, mind you, and seeing what’s possible, like this horrifying classic.
But if I were to actually eat at all the places that have the fancy feasts, I’d be in chains after all, and then this clue wouldn’t work nearly as well as it does, casually rebuking chains, by which it refers to franchises: FINE DINING. I appreciate that there’s no snobbery in that clue, though there could’ve been, and that level of elegance and respect extends to the rest of the constructor’s grid, which also includes winners like Noncommittal committal for DEFINITE MAYBE and “Sorry, can’t stay” giving way to the friendly excuse, I HAVE TO RUN. Even a long-suffering god gets clued with a deceptively mild entry: World-weary sort? for good ol’ globe-toting ATLAS.
- Robyn Weintraub, The New York Times, 3/11/22
The Crossword Scholar 