The Apricot Tree Café is a small restaurant stationed on Dundas Street West near Mississauga Road. The layout, dress code and food prices suggest that this cafe is oriented towards the middle class patrons rather than the low or high class. Points from Daniel Chandler’s Semiotics for Beginners site (2002) and Marijke van der Veen’s “When is Food a Luxury?” (2003) will be used to elaborate later on.
The placement of this café seems very classy and luxurious from its surrounding stores in its plaza, however it is in fact not a fancy restaurant. A coat rack provided for its patrons me be considered a service for expensive jackets, however it is used by all patrons regardless of class which is an example of what Marijke van der Veen defines, based …show more content…
Daniel Chandler emphasis this in his references to Saussure’s “two-part model of the sign” (Chandler, 2002), which provides an explanation onto why the name and location may be causing confusion to the patrons. Saussure two-part model discusses how the listener of a signifier which in this case be the word “café” would psychologically associate it with “other elements associated with it in a linguistic sign” (Chandler, 2002) which is the signified. In terms of the name, The Apricot Tree Café, when a listener hears the word “café” they automatically associate it with something in French because of the way it is pronounced as well as think of prior experience in other possible fancy cafes. Its surrounding Victorian fashion stores and classy bar lounges may also cause this misconception as well. While the employees are dressed in dress shirts and black aprons tied around their waist, the diners are wearing t-shirts, blouses and jeans which is something that can be wore on any occasion on any …show more content…
Since the cost of their dishes are not expensive, it would not be considered a luxurious restaurant since “luxury usually denotes foods that are desirable or hard to obtain but not essential to human nutrition” (Veen, 2013, p .406). The dishes in on the menu are easily created since the ingredients are provided underneath each dish, and the prices for each is fair considering the quality of the dish and the fresh ingredients used, it is neither really high quality food, nor cold and cheap ingredients. Therefore, it would be a middle class restaurant since middle class patrons would be able to afford this kind of food if they wanted to. Overall, in terms of attire, high class restaurant is where everyone is dressed up semi-formal clothing such as dress and suit. In terms of pace and layout, a restaurant directed to the lower class would be where diners could spent their spare change on food that is quick to eat if in a hurry. The Apricot Tree Café is neither a high class nor low class restaurant since the dress code is casual and because the cost of the food is neither expensive nor cheap. This café would be best oriented towards middle class patrons’ looks for a place to eat and possibly stay longer if need to chat with friends or
The placement of this café seems very classy and luxurious from its surrounding stores in its plaza, however it is in fact not a fancy restaurant. A coat rack provided for its patrons me be considered a service for expensive jackets, however it is used by all patrons regardless of class which is an example of what Marijke van der Veen defines, based …show more content…
Daniel Chandler emphasis this in his references to Saussure’s “two-part model of the sign” (Chandler, 2002), which provides an explanation onto why the name and location may be causing confusion to the patrons. Saussure two-part model discusses how the listener of a signifier which in this case be the word “café” would psychologically associate it with “other elements associated with it in a linguistic sign” (Chandler, 2002) which is the signified. In terms of the name, The Apricot Tree Café, when a listener hears the word “café” they automatically associate it with something in French because of the way it is pronounced as well as think of prior experience in other possible fancy cafes. Its surrounding Victorian fashion stores and classy bar lounges may also cause this misconception as well. While the employees are dressed in dress shirts and black aprons tied around their waist, the diners are wearing t-shirts, blouses and jeans which is something that can be wore on any occasion on any …show more content…
Since the cost of their dishes are not expensive, it would not be considered a luxurious restaurant since “luxury usually denotes foods that are desirable or hard to obtain but not essential to human nutrition” (Veen, 2013, p .406). The dishes in on the menu are easily created since the ingredients are provided underneath each dish, and the prices for each is fair considering the quality of the dish and the fresh ingredients used, it is neither really high quality food, nor cold and cheap ingredients. Therefore, it would be a middle class restaurant since middle class patrons would be able to afford this kind of food if they wanted to. Overall, in terms of attire, high class restaurant is where everyone is dressed up semi-formal clothing such as dress and suit. In terms of pace and layout, a restaurant directed to the lower class would be where diners could spent their spare change on food that is quick to eat if in a hurry. The Apricot Tree Café is neither a high class nor low class restaurant since the dress code is casual and because the cost of the food is neither expensive nor cheap. This café would be best oriented towards middle class patrons’ looks for a place to eat and possibly stay longer if need to chat with friends or