Rustic: Officially Jumped the Shark

We are in the age of rustic: girls with long, ratty hair and boys in shaggy beards. We are not polished. We are not all like Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Food has followed in the trend. Turn to any cooking show and the chef will surely praise her rustic pasta dish or rustic roast chicken. Nothing is refined. Everything has an air of ease. Unfussy is modern. The word rustic is used to sell. And just like hipster, it’s been used so much that it’s starting to not mean a thing.

This sign in front of the DC bar Asylum exemplifies my point. Hash was never a dish put together with great care or excruciating detail. It’s a dish brought forth from the humble potato. And there’s absolutely no need for the word rustic to proceed the word hash. Hash is rustic. And rustic has jumped the shark.