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We've had two seafood restaurants near us close in the past couple of months, one is a chain, Oceanaire, we went, once.  The other called Lure is part of a small group of about 7 different types, we went to Ecco last night, which is in the group, but not the seafood kind.  I asked the manager there what she thought the problem was with "Lure".  She kinda didn't know.  It was on a side street, but with a lot of other restaurants nearby, and Ecco is on a sidestreet but doing well.  Maybe "we" don't like seafood much?  Lure was pretty decent, I thought.  

That leaves us with one sort of bar-seafood kind of place which I like OK but my wife doesn't as much.  As you can see, it's more quaint than upscale looking, but I've had decent meals there, sitting outside is nice.

Steamhouse Lounge

Our one visit to Oceanaire was in the OK range and pricey.  So, no second visit.

I am concluding that finding a really good restaurant around here without paying superpremium pricing is difficult.  We have a lot of places that are "OK", they do the job, the food is decent, but nothing is exceptional about them in general, and the bill for dinner is $70-100 without any alcohol (couple).  And there often will be one miss, the server messed up something, an item was not hot that should be, the food arrived with improper spacing.  Small things.  So far, La Grotta has been a plus plus in every respect and decently priced.  It's also difficult to get a reservation.

Last night we sat outside, it was a nice evening, the server was overly chatty, my wife asked for a glass of ice and he disappeared and after ten minutes she had to go inside to ask again.  We had a split of Champagne and she likes a cube of ice in her bubbly.

We still may have a nice experience overall, like at Boqueria, but things could be improved.  I'm slowly discovering I either pay $500 for a meal for two and get top notch everything, or just pay $30 for a couple of burgers at a good burger place.  One place near us would run well over $500, I haven't had the courage to try it yet, and probably won't.  The "tasting menu" is $250 each, the wine pairing is another $185.  Each.  

Lazy Betty | Midtown Atlanta

I'll just go to Kroger and make spaghetti.

I know restaurants were hit hard when the IRS clamped down on dining out expensing, circa 2002 or so.  The place in which I had a small ownership was geared to hosting some Big Spenders from GE et al., and the wine assemblage showed it.  Not many "normal diners" would order a $500 Bordeaux.  They could stay afloat if 2 or 3 whales showed up in a week and they broke even elsewhere.  I wonder how common this is.  I know their model was to break even on food and make some money on alcohol, which worked until the 2008 debacle.  They tried to hold food costs under 35% of pricing, and that was tough.  Ergo, if they paid $3.50 for the food, they'd charge $10.  Main dishes back then were in the $15-25 range.

Jeff, the manager, would give me good prices on "left over wines", which worked out pretty well as he knew his wines.  They'd have a bottle or two of a something.

I know a sure fire way to make a small fortune in that biz.

Only a bottle of Select wine? They don't have Choice or Prime?!

check the map for McCook, NE