meaning...

[Alexander]

what do these paragraphs mean? I really did not understand what they mean...

The Time Warner Center speaks to a newly clear dynamic that is also on display in the meatpacking district: Manhattan restaurants like to cluster together, feeding off each other's energy and customers, and burnishing an aggregate luster greater than any single contributor's shine.


Few of the restaurants on the meatpacking district's streets hover at the pinnacle of New York's culinary world. But they demonstrate that restaurants and their success are about much more than food. They are also about fashions, and in New York, those never stay the same for long.



source: http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/trave...A1575BC0A9629C


what meatpacking district and feeding off each other's mean?


thanks in advance...

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Alexander

what do these paragraphs mean? I really did not understand what they mean...

The Time Warner Center speaks to a newly clear dynamic that is also on display in the meatpacking district: Manhattan restaurants like to cluster together, feeding off each other's energy and customers, and burnishing an aggregate luster greater than any single contributor's shine.


Few of the restaurants on the meatpacking district's streets hover at the pinnacle of New York's culinary world. But they demonstrate that restaurants and their success are about much more than food. They are also about fashions, and in New York, those never stay the same for long.


source:

what meatpacking district and feeding off each other's mean?


thanks in advance...

Here's a rough paraphrase; I'm not trying to match phrase for phrase:

Restaurants in the Time Warner Center, like restaurants in the area of Manhattan known as the "meatpacking district", illustrate something new that is happening in the restaurant business in Manhattan. In these places, restaurants are being located near each other. They share each other's reputation and they share each other's customers. The reputation of the group of restaurants makes each one seem better than it would by itself.

In general, the restaurants in the meatpacking district are not the ones that serve the best meals in New York. They are successful not just for the quality of their food, but also because they are considered "fashionable", the place to be seen. They must be aware that fashion changes quickly.

-- Meatpacking district. -- An area around 9th Ave in New York City next to Greenwich Village. It has been a commercial district for many years where meat is processed. Recently, a number of stores and restaurants have opened up there. (I had never before heard of "the meatpacking district". I got this from the Net, especially:

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/visitors...eatpacking.htm )

-- Feeding off each other -- This is a phrase that describes "symbiosis", the situation where two or more things (organisms, businesses, people ...) each benefit from their relationship. Here, you might think that multiple competing restaurants would take business away from each other, giving each one less business because of the competition. However, in this case, the number of fashionable restaurants in one area attracts more customers to the district than the total that the restaurants individually might attract.