are large local chains good for a city's dining scene?

in houston, there's the papadeaux franchise, which seems to do a pretty good job of offering homogenized food of several genres. in new orleans, copelands was a bit like this in the 90s, but to a smaller extent. the brennan family might be the closest thing to it now, but it's at a much higher end level.

in chicago, there's the lettuce entertain you group. these guys have been scooping up independents and opening new, trendy places, offering food as diverse as mall food court style to maggiano's to nashville honky tonk bar bbq to a paris styled bistro. the company says it is a partnership, and maybe it is, but i think the longer a restaurant stays in this "partnership" the closer it becomes to the other restaurants in substance and style.

once a year, they send out scratch off coupons, and during this period, i sample as many restaurants as i can. i can eat a lot of meals free that way. i don't think the food is particularly good or bad at any of these places -- all are pretty typical higher end chain restaurant style.

but i have come to a conclusion about these places. as diverse as they try to be, most of them serve similar dishes and almost always, the food tastes the same as at other restaurants. so while lettuce entertain you, the ltd, seems like a good idea to most food critics in chicago, as they praise the group's ability to run smooth operations with many types of food, i am arguing that it does the opposite. it homogenizes the taste of a town as well as the service. as much as the company spends in terms of money and effort to make these places look and superficially feel differently, i find myself reading menus that seem awfully similar and eating food that is almost identical.

i think lettuce entertain you is harming the chicago dining scene. and i wonder if there aren't similar groups thinking of starting (or maybe lettuce entertain you is thinking of starting) in other cities in america. is this new chain-local arrangement going to be the new trend in american dining in the years to come?