Reviewing Reviewing
Mar 17, 2009 general food, restaurants
A restaurant gets a mediocre review, and the critic and reviewing get a well-stated review back (too).
Interesting points are raised in the latter about the change in reviewing as mainstream media competes with new media to get the scoop.
Locally, we could replace Dirt Candy with Mattingly Brewing Company, and gas with beer. Sure, Mattingly wasn’t right to open up and call themselves a brewery before they had beer flowing freely from their taps, but reviewing them before it was doesn’t seem particularly right–or beneficial–either.
Tags: critics, restaurant reviews
Brief Thoughts and Questions About Reviews
Dec 3, 2008 general food, restaurants
One thing I’ve always found weird about the restaurant industry is that if you, as a restaurateur, go out of your way to send thanks for reviews, invite reviewers/media in, etc, it’s seen as a sleazy attempt to buy-off a review. In other industries, however, it’s simply good business.
While the reviewers do, certainly, have to refuse because they have to make their best attempt to get the dining experience of the common man, it simply doesn’t work well. Just look at NYC. Frank Bruni is the most powerful reviewer in the country, and everyone knows who he is.
So where should a reviewer toe the line? Can you contact a restaurant prior to opening via phone or email? Can you get non-menu items as long as the staff doesn’t know who you are? How does the dining public feel towards the anonymity of their reviewers in this digital age where anonymity is difficult to obtain?
Tags: critics, Frank Bruni, reviewers
From the mountains of Panama and Ethiopia, to the urban-jungles of Portland and Chicago, journalist Michaele Weissman takes us behind the scenes for a look at the world of third-wave specialty coffee. How did we get to Starbucks, and where we go from here?