# Find Hot French Food Near Me: A Follow-up

On [Zvi's recent post](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D5urD7WmDePyii73D/who-has-the-best-food) about French food I posted an [inflammatory comment](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D5urD7WmDePyii73D/?commentId=Lzja5wcSSjSh4gSoG) (saying in essence that French food is so bad American capitalism hasn't even bothered stealing it).  I got [challenged](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/D5urD7WmDePyii73D/who-has-the-best-food?commentId=8m4kxgkiZpghFkior) to provide evidence supporting this, and particularly to back up my claim that there were more German than French restaurants near me.

Right.  Yes.  Evidence.  I am a reasonable adult who understands that beliefs must be supported by evidence.  So.  Here we go.

Some Google Searches
====================

I've searched for '\[ethnicity\] restaurant near Grove Street, Jersey City, NJ' (I live in Jersey City, and the Grove Street area is reasonably near the center).

When I search for 'French' I can count 13 results:

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/ee221766362a7ecca66d508dc5a7b5050d573f727981d3f5.png)

And when I search for 'German' I count only 9:

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/73e4b73ec173ef5ba6d6a19fc65f2779a9bcf990624399b4.png)

Ha!  The foolish American has been hoisted on his own petard!  ('Petard' is French for 'fuck you').

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I don't think these numbers tell the whole story.

What Makes These Places French?
===============================

Google's definition of 'French' and 'German' restaurants here appears to be **extremely expansive.**  

*   [Hudson Hound Jersey City](https://goo.gl/maps/u6sr26nW7AwmbABa6), an 'Irish gastropub', shows up on the French search.
*   [Shadman](https://goo.gl/maps/2XnZtAHLVeDvdqiQ8), a 'go-to for Pakistani and Indian cuisine', shows up on the German search.
*   [Luna](https://goo.gl/maps/7vwWsxpkmCLZ7z3FA), for 'Italian eats', shows up on the French search.
*   [Frankie](https://goo.gl/maps/kk4Z7v6GSAXvq4iL7), an 'Australian eatery', shows up on the German search.

So, for lack of anything better to do, I've gone through manually to look for things that I think 'count' as French or German.

The two 'real' German places (and the ones I was thinking of in my comment) are ['Wurstbar'](https://goo.gl/maps/3swQDMosRiEcKaTV8) and ['Zeppelin Hall Beer Garden'](https://goo.gl/maps/PihP6NdCrJbQ7TXa8), and while we may question the taste of these places I do not think we can question their German-ness.  The search also turned up '[Hudson Hall](https://goo.gl/maps/JXje9RqMUQFCJafv5)', a 'Euro beer bar with house-smoked meats', which I think at least ambiguously might count.

It's less clear to me how many of the hits for 'French restaurant' are actually both French and restaurants.  Certainly I've been to a few of these places, and none of them have charged me twenty-three dollars for a baguette while sneering at me.  We have:

*   Cafe Madelaine describes itself as a French restaurant.  We count that.
*   Choc O Pain definitely sounds French, but it's not clear to me if it's actually a restaurant: it seems to actually be a bakery, and the [menu](https://www.chocopainbakery.com/s/shop) seems to bear that out.  I'll give it half.
*   Hudson Hound self-describes as 'Irish'.
*   Matthews Food and Drink self-describes as 'American' (though I guess it also self-describes as 'chic').
*   Grove Station self-describes as 'New American' (I have no idea what that means).
*   El Sazon De Las Americas self-describes as 'Dominican' (I don't think that counts as French, though I'm sure someone will make the case).
*   Uncle Momo self-describes as 'French-Lebanese fare'.  Let's give that half again.
*   Beechwood Cafe self-describes as 'American'.
*   Luna self-describes as 'Italian'.
*   Razza is an Italian pizza place.
*   Short Grain is...uh...a 'hip place with sidewalk seats serving Asian-influenced & vegetarian dishes, plus coffee & green tea', and while I have no idea what that is and don't particularly want to find out I don't think it means 'French'.
*   Frankie self-describes as 'Italian'.
*   Cafe Dolma self-describes as 'Greek'.

So overall I think 'French' and 'German' each end up with either 2 or 3 restaurants, depending on how you count some edge cases.

Summary
=======

I am sorry that I said French food was not as successful under capitalism as German food.  I see now that French food is **exactly** as popular and successful as German food, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise!