The mexican restaurant rule.
I live in Logan Square, which is sort of like the Mission in San Francisco: a bold, awkward mix of hipsters and Mexican immigrants. There are many taquerias in Logan Square. They are run by Mexican immigrants who came here and opened taquerias. One of them is on the block where I live. This is not special because there’s a taqueria on nearly every block in the neighborhood, but it is special because it’s open 24 hours, and because there is an awning. Here is the awning:
It’s easy to find excellent Mexican food in Logan Square because the selection is so vast; if you don’t like one restaurant, you walk over to another block and eat there instead. Fine. This is doable. But it’s thrown out the window when you just had fifteen cans of Blatz, like a giant liquefacted misfortune, at the dive bar next door and it’s 3am and you just closed out the whole infamous grifted drinking town and oh my god, you now just fucking require tacos. Eight tacos. And, woe be your tilting drunk self, this restaurant is your only option. The food at this restaurant is terrible.
And so the awning. It reads “good mexican food.” The awning is a lie. Here is the mexican restaurant rule: if you have to declare something about yourself or your work, it’s not true.
This has implications outside the internecine, entrenched taqueria battles of Logan Square. Your software is simple, you say? Easy to use? That’s nice. Don’t say it. Your graphic design is beautifully expressive? Don’t say it. If you say it, you’re doomed. Your indie band’s press one-sheet says you’re sincere and emotive? That’s very interesting.
The mexican restaurant rule may be a thing because if you aren’t living the principles that you believe in, you start to talk about it, as if you’re trying to will it into being. But everybody can smell a fake, and this is a great way to come off as one. So I’ve found that the best way to promote quality is by showing it, and letting folks decide for themselves. People are smart; they don’t need hand-holding.
There are exceptions, of course, like any breakable guideline, but I think this holds true in enough circumstances to write about it on the fancy Internet, and that must be worth something.
