Sex sells at the restaurants

There are a couple draws to Ela, the "Hot 20" rated Queen Village restaurant.

For some it may be the pulled short ribs with whipped potato, broccoli gremolata or the hot chocolate chip cookie dough dessert served with vanilla ice cream.

For others it might be Chef Jason Cichonski, the tall, blue-eyed, tousled-haired, twenty-something owner of the restaurant. Not only does he have serious skills in the kitchen, he looks darn fine doing it.

When it comes to food, sex sells. "The memory of an attractive person preparing your food or drink, no matter where it is, must stimulate some sort of pleasure center in your brain that keeps you going back," says Dori Molozanov, in a recent Table Matters post, "Coffee, Tea, Or Me?"

According to Molozanov, people are fascinated by being fed by good-looking people.

"We feel important and sexy when we dine out, and we muster up the confidence to flash a smile at that good-looking guy or girl pouring our drink, the one who we wouldn't have thought would give us a second look anywhere else," Molozanov writes.

And the food industry is taking notice. In the last year there has been a boom in "breastaurants," which Molozanov defines as, "sports bar-type establishments with scantily clad waitresses." Bone Daddy's House of Smoke in Texas advertises its, "BBQ, BEER, and Daddy's Girls."

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star (and recently eliminated contestant on Dancing with the Stars) Lisa Vanderpump created a spin off show, Vanderpump Rules, which revolved around the lives of the hot-and-bothered staff of her restaurant SUR. "The servers all want to be models, actors, writers, singers," says waitress Stassi Schroeder.

"Dining out, like travel, is an escape from the regular and the mundane — after all, people don't travel to experience something that they can do, anytime, down the street from their house," writes Molozanov. "It therefore makes sense that we would also incorporate a desire to escape to a place with more enticing romantic prospects."

To read Dori Molozanov's full post, click here. To make a reservation at Ela, click here.

(Photo credit: JASON VARNEY)