Pinching pennies at Ryan’s Grill, Buffet & Bakery

By CHARLES FERRUZZA

Long before I became a professional restaurant reviewer — in fact, when I was so dead broke that I was washing clothes in my sink — I still ate at restaurants. Even if the place wasn’t fancy, eating out was a little bit of luxury that I indulged in simply to feel special in a hard-knock world.

In those days, I could barely afford to eat in Putsch’s Cafeteria, but I did, because it was often the only decent hot meal I had all week. If I had enough extra dough for a piece of coconut cream pie, it was really a good week.

That brings me to the current economic climate and how we’ve just got to support our local restaurants — the good, the bad and the ugly.

Call it a coincidence, but an inexpensive chain restaurant that I almost never think about came up twice in conversations last week. The first time was when a stockbroker – once a regular at the Capital Grill — told me his income had taken such a plunge that he was going to have to start eating at Ryan’s Grill, Buffet & Bakery instead. He wasn’t laughing.