Originally Posted by ElmhurstNick

Within 50 miles from home, I rarely eat at a sit down chain, the exceptions being 3-4x/year at Cheesecake Factory with my parents, and once or twice a year at Capital Grille and/or McCormick and Schmick's. And those are all chains where I would eat on the road as well, if I had a taste for that particular style of food.

For work travel, in places where I go infrequently or it's a smaler town, I'll settle for an Outback or Ruby Tuesday. For one dinner, the ROI on the time investment of finding a local place and having the local place actually be better is not worth it. Let's face it, a grilled chicken sandwich and an order of french fries is not that much different from Ruby Tuesday or the local diner. Add in the risk of the diner not moving their inventory fast enough, and Ruby Tuesday is fine.

But if it's a city where I'll be returning multiple times over the course of a couple of years, or one of the ten largest cities, I'll find something local.