BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Is this jambalaya good?
Everything else is the same. The tables. The counter. The chalkboard above it -- which predated the chic-urban-coffee-shop-chalkboard trend by years, and which is actually written on, rather than artistically designed -- detailing the cajun dishes du jour. The same hot-sauce bottles lined up on the same shelf; the same fountain-drink machine in the back corner of the dining room; the same cutout in the same wall, revealing the same pans simmering on the same burners.
Bob Crowley, the owner of Dats on Grant, serves a customer a heap of food on the same, wide Styrofoam plate and strikes up a conversation.