Rubell thinks the vibe is what makes a great restaurant.

Jennifer Rubell: I think the vibe makes a great restaurant.  It’s so funny.  I think about food from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed.  But the restaurants I love are really about the feeling.  They’re not necessarily about the food.  The food has to be good, but it doesn’t . . .  It doesn’t determine . . .  It doesn’t determine whether that restaurant holds some special place in your heart, which is a great lesson for home cooks.  Because when you think about the restaurants you love to go to, are they the restaurants that have that unbelievable, absolutely perfectly executed food?  Or do you just kind of like something about what’s going on there?  I mean for me certainly – and I’m totally devoted to food – for me it’s certainly about sort of liking something that’s going on there.  And that’s what people are looking for when they come to your house for dinner too.  So it’s interesting, that need for feeling of conviviality, and comfort, and sort of like good vibe is really, really important to human beings for some reason.  It was programmed into us for some purpose.

Recorded on 12/13/07