I disdain those lines with a passion (that New York or Nowhere line you alluded to makes me laugh and smdh in equal measure every time). And yet, thinking back over the last few weeks, I’ve waited in line for La Cabra, outside the New Balance store before it opened for the Auralee collabs, at the Met briefly to go into the Raphael show (highly recommended while you’re here, if you haven’t seen it yet), and probably a bunch of others that I’m purposely forgetting. So yeah, I hate them but somehow let myself be drawn into them when they lead to something I think I need. (But I’m a Gen X-er, so at least I have Fugazi’s “Merchandise” running through my head while I wait, I guess.)
I think the four reasons you ID for QTBATs make sense, and they do give the line waiters a somewhat noble purpose, in a way, but the overlay of the virtual world on those lines does make them feel a bit fraught. I stood on a very short line for matcha a while back, at a place near CHCM that normally has lines down the block, and every single person who got their matcha ahead of me pulled their phone out to document and presumably post its latte art. I have to admit, I really enjoyed my brief conversation with the woman preparing my matcha, but when I left the place and took my first sip, I wanted to throw it away; it tasted chalky and terrible. But at least it looked nice.
For line-waiting devotees and despisers alike, I recommend Vladimir Sorokin's 1983 novel, The Queue, as a peak into Soviet version of the QTBA Unknown Item.
I only do QTBATS when I am freshly jet lagged heading into an adventure or returning home. I find the jet lag somehow allows me to not understand time and just enjoy being somewhere around others.
That last line about lines was just 👌. As an ex-Tartine employee at the front, I remember that intense expectation folks had in line for the best thing they’d ever tasted. It was glorious for some folks- lots of whole fresh loaves bitten into 🙈- and so disappointing for others who thought their eyes would roll straight back into their skulls with a bowl of bread pudding. Your essay is full of thoughts we Gen X and Y, line averse folks always think about when we pass a hot new drop, but you’ve captured so many ideas and connections here with writing that never ceases to make me laugh and wonder about the world 🙏 time to get that (spiritual) bread!
The situation is bonkers now in Amsterdam. Choosing to stand in line for anything in Amsterdam is cursed behavior, but especially so for fries you can get anywhere (but this is the place on Tik Tok!) or even one of the very good but basically normal sandwiches from Chun. You came to Amsterdam to stand in line for a sandwich? For real?
And the broader problem is it feels it's now the majority who won't go to a place unless it's been featured in this way, leading to a wild flattening of what's on offer. Enter the pistachio cruffin. You can't get a single damn slice of decent pizza anywhere in this city but literally every corner will sell you a pistachio cruffin. Make it make sense!
Like most things in life QTBAT is about intention. I've stood in line in SF to support new local eateries, visit a store who put in time to make a cultural event happen, or pickup a rarified meal option during a holiday event. All of those were about supporting the business and often chatting with neighbors in line. I find the particularly cursed behavior to be when folks in line don't engage with the business beyond commodifying their output as a badge on their fomo-persona. That the having was the experience, failing to see the moment or relationship they could have built with their time. They traded that presence for desire. "Happiness is a moment before you need more happiness."
The only time I’ve ever been tempted to QTBAT is for Toronto’s most hyped slice at Badiali. I successfully procured a slice without lining up by going at off peak time. Another time skipped the queue all together by pigging out and ordering a full pie ahead of time. I have zero patience to QTBAT.
Regrettably as a younger millennial I have been semi regularly lured by the QTBAT - rare benefit of Dublin not being a city that accommodates queuing outside for 3/4s of the year - this hasn’t majorly taken root.
A lot to be said for a queue where hype is present but not contrived. One of the best meals I’ve ever had was at Bar Nestor in San Sebastián - they make two potato tortillas per day and you have to be there when your name is called. Three items on the menu and all sublime! Big up to the old heads creating scarcity through commitment to quality rather than for artificial “”buzz””
At what point does the QTBAT become just the regular queue?
I have two great local bakeries, Eric’s and Toad in London, both have long lines even after the hype of the opening has died down, you can easily wait 20-30 minutes to get inside, and that’s just locals waiting for their morning fix.
As long as it’s approached with a chill mindset I can handle it, you generally bump into someone you know, lots of cool dogs, it’s not “part of the experience” but it just becomes the way it is.
Yeah, there’s a coffee shop near us that just does really good pour overs which take a while and a lot of people in the neighborhood like it so there’s typically a line during any peak hour —- and it’s not *really* a QTBAT so much as a function of popularity, though the distinction is admittedly hard to pin down
I'm in Tokyo for a month, and it has always amazed me how people here wait in line (99% young women) to buy the newest, cutest "do-nut" or cookie! I have to admit today I waited for a donut, but only 5 minutes!
It’s more likely than not that a Catholic priest (normie type) has given a homily about cronuts, with more or less the same message as your last few paragraphs there.
I think the worst thing about this phenomenon in the midwest is that there are very few places outside of maybe Chicago where the QTBAT is even an outside in-person experience - most of the time when something new opens in the towns around me it's a new fast food place and the QTBAT is just a massive drive thru line, which is especially cursed.
It’s a fascinating question that requires further thought, on the ground reporting, and attention to cultural nuance. But some lines in Japan are definitely QTBATs, it’s a global phenomenon
I disdain those lines with a passion (that New York or Nowhere line you alluded to makes me laugh and smdh in equal measure every time). And yet, thinking back over the last few weeks, I’ve waited in line for La Cabra, outside the New Balance store before it opened for the Auralee collabs, at the Met briefly to go into the Raphael show (highly recommended while you’re here, if you haven’t seen it yet), and probably a bunch of others that I’m purposely forgetting. So yeah, I hate them but somehow let myself be drawn into them when they lead to something I think I need. (But I’m a Gen X-er, so at least I have Fugazi’s “Merchandise” running through my head while I wait, I guess.)
I think the four reasons you ID for QTBATs make sense, and they do give the line waiters a somewhat noble purpose, in a way, but the overlay of the virtual world on those lines does make them feel a bit fraught. I stood on a very short line for matcha a while back, at a place near CHCM that normally has lines down the block, and every single person who got their matcha ahead of me pulled their phone out to document and presumably post its latte art. I have to admit, I really enjoyed my brief conversation with the woman preparing my matcha, but when I left the place and took my first sip, I wanted to throw it away; it tasted chalky and terrible. But at least it looked nice.
For line-waiting devotees and despisers alike, I recommend Vladimir Sorokin's 1983 novel, The Queue, as a peak into Soviet version of the QTBA Unknown Item.
I only do QTBATS when I am freshly jet lagged heading into an adventure or returning home. I find the jet lag somehow allows me to not understand time and just enjoy being somewhere around others.
good policy
That last line about lines was just 👌. As an ex-Tartine employee at the front, I remember that intense expectation folks had in line for the best thing they’d ever tasted. It was glorious for some folks- lots of whole fresh loaves bitten into 🙈- and so disappointing for others who thought their eyes would roll straight back into their skulls with a bowl of bread pudding. Your essay is full of thoughts we Gen X and Y, line averse folks always think about when we pass a hot new drop, but you’ve captured so many ideas and connections here with writing that never ceases to make me laugh and wonder about the world 🙏 time to get that (spiritual) bread!
The situation is bonkers now in Amsterdam. Choosing to stand in line for anything in Amsterdam is cursed behavior, but especially so for fries you can get anywhere (but this is the place on Tik Tok!) or even one of the very good but basically normal sandwiches from Chun. You came to Amsterdam to stand in line for a sandwich? For real?
And the broader problem is it feels it's now the majority who won't go to a place unless it's been featured in this way, leading to a wild flattening of what's on offer. Enter the pistachio cruffin. You can't get a single damn slice of decent pizza anywhere in this city but literally every corner will sell you a pistachio cruffin. Make it make sense!
Important on-the-ground QTBAT foreign correspondence, thank you
Headed to Amsterdam next month so this is great (if depressing) intel
Simple formula - if there's a line, never you mind.
Bingo! And, on to the next.
Like most things in life QTBAT is about intention. I've stood in line in SF to support new local eateries, visit a store who put in time to make a cultural event happen, or pickup a rarified meal option during a holiday event. All of those were about supporting the business and often chatting with neighbors in line. I find the particularly cursed behavior to be when folks in line don't engage with the business beyond commodifying their output as a badge on their fomo-persona. That the having was the experience, failing to see the moment or relationship they could have built with their time. They traded that presence for desire. "Happiness is a moment before you need more happiness."
The only time I’ve ever been tempted to QTBAT is for Toronto’s most hyped slice at Badiali. I successfully procured a slice without lining up by going at off peak time. Another time skipped the queue all together by pigging out and ordering a full pie ahead of time. I have zero patience to QTBAT.
Regrettably as a younger millennial I have been semi regularly lured by the QTBAT - rare benefit of Dublin not being a city that accommodates queuing outside for 3/4s of the year - this hasn’t majorly taken root.
A lot to be said for a queue where hype is present but not contrived. One of the best meals I’ve ever had was at Bar Nestor in San Sebastián - they make two potato tortillas per day and you have to be there when your name is called. Three items on the menu and all sublime! Big up to the old heads creating scarcity through commitment to quality rather than for artificial “”buzz””
At what point does the QTBAT become just the regular queue?
I have two great local bakeries, Eric’s and Toad in London, both have long lines even after the hype of the opening has died down, you can easily wait 20-30 minutes to get inside, and that’s just locals waiting for their morning fix.
As long as it’s approached with a chill mindset I can handle it, you generally bump into someone you know, lots of cool dogs, it’s not “part of the experience” but it just becomes the way it is.
Yeah, there’s a coffee shop near us that just does really good pour overs which take a while and a lot of people in the neighborhood like it so there’s typically a line during any peak hour —- and it’s not *really* a QTBAT so much as a function of popularity, though the distinction is admittedly hard to pin down
A really good one, this. Thank you!
I'm in Tokyo for a month, and it has always amazed me how people here wait in line (99% young women) to buy the newest, cutest "do-nut" or cookie! I have to admit today I waited for a donut, but only 5 minutes!
It’s more likely than not that a Catholic priest (normie type) has given a homily about cronuts, with more or less the same message as your last few paragraphs there.
I think the worst thing about this phenomenon in the midwest is that there are very few places outside of maybe Chicago where the QTBAT is even an outside in-person experience - most of the time when something new opens in the towns around me it's a new fast food place and the QTBAT is just a massive drive thru line, which is especially cursed.
whoa
Culv*rspilling is real out here 😂
Yuuuup lol
Hey Jonah! Hey Erin!
What is the best way to contact you?
Do lines in Japan count as QTBATs? Because just about every decent joint in the big cities require waiting in a line there.
It’s a fascinating question that requires further thought, on the ground reporting, and attention to cultural nuance. But some lines in Japan are definitely QTBATs, it’s a global phenomenon
The most egregious example of this is the line for old friend I’d love to be in that business