Unit 1: Chili's

I chose to use Chili's as my focus of the public space topic. This was appealing to me because I find myself spending a lot of time there anyway. I tend to go there often with a friend of mine during football season to watch the game and have a drink. Another reason I chose it, outside of familiarity, is that there is a lot going on inside, meaning lots of different things to view and use as it's argument for it's service and it's target clientele.

So far I have been there to take notes on two different occasions. The first was on a Thursday night and the second was over Sunday lunch. It was interesting to see that what I expected was not necessarily the arguments that Chili's was making upon studying the actual restaurant. I expected to find a single/college-aged crowd, an established theme, and Mexican feeling decor. What I am finding is more of a southwest flair paired with a lot of young families and no real set theme.

I do feel like their target audience is what I initially said, the single, college-aged crowd, but that it tends to draw in others by it's location and it's prices. The young families that were there at the times that I made it may have been included in Chili's target audience as well. So it may be helpful to say that the target audience is young twenties ranging to early thirties.

Some of the preconceived notions that I have are already taking a back burner with my two visits, but I am trying to write down my knee-jerk reactions and then analyze if they came from me or the actual restaurant when I go back through them. Hopefully I don't get too much in the way of myself making good observations.

... PS something is going screwy with my formatting. Please forgive me