It seems that food fads come and go in an endless parade. Remember restaurants that specialized in rotisserie chicken? Or wraps? Or salad bars?
Clark Wolf, a New York-based consultant who has worked with Las Vegas restaurants, has seen it all over the years.
"Probably the most important and memorable 20th-century fad that is the benchmark for all of this was blackened redfish," Wolf said. "And the result was the extinction of a species."
But even that one, he said, had an upside (as long as you're not a redfish).
"It told people food could be regional, it could be flavorful, it could be familiar and new and different all at the same time," he said.
Wolf said most "new" fads have, in reality, been around for a couple of centuries. Take an old idea, add some new ingredients, a twist or a TV show, he said, and "you get lines waiting for cupcakes."
Food fads are "little bits of mass culture and quick learning. They're only successful if they're part of larger, deeper trends -- if they're part of things we really want to eat," he said.
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