The Starbucks Generation grew up knowing, loving food, Platt says.

Question: Why do New Yorkers love eating out?

Adam Platt: Well, I think they’ve always had it but I think I notice this in younger people. They’re very educated and they have very definite opinions about what they like or like not to eat. They’ve grown up. The Starbucks generation has grown up thinking about the different grains of Costa Rican roasts that they have consumed with their indulgent and equally obsessed- food-obsessed parents so there’s a much- it’s a very- a much more sort of educated conversant opinionated--being the internet generation--opinionated group than before. New York had always been for fairly cultured eaters but generally in the ‘60s and ‘70s the grand French or Italian restaurant would open to it- open up and people would dutifully troop in and enjoy their supposed and often- usually quite grand experience and then troop out and tell their friends how wonderful it was and then that would perpetuate itself. Now it’s a much more various, multifaceted scene.

Recorded on: 4/22/08