During a recent conversation with Facebook friend and owner of Local Food Service, Joe Harvey, he lamented the fact that many of the food blogs he had come across weren't adding enough value to the discussion of the local restaurant scene. In his opinion, it wasn't enough to have a meal at a restaurant and then write up an article to be posted at a later date on the blog. He felt that for a truly fair and effective review, the restaurant in question should also be given the opportunity to respond and their comments published along with the original review. This would give the restaurant and/or chef the chance to correct any factual mistakes in the review as well as provide feedback on the food blogger's dining experience.
After having recently been banned from a local Cleveland restaurant for a review that appeared on my blog in late 2009, I began to revisit Joe's ideas again and have decided to create an experiment. What you won't see is a change in my posting frequency or types of food reviews that I do here on Exploring Food My Way. What you will see, gentle reader, is an attempt to solicit comments whenever practical from the restaurants that I review. What does "whenever practical" mean? It means that if I can get in touch with the restaurant or chef via email, website, Facebook, or Twitter, I will do so. I have set up a staging blog, completely separate from this one, where I will publish finished reviews so that the restaurant in question can read my review in its entirety. At that point they have the option of submitting feedback or not. I will then include some or all of this feedback at the end of my review. My intention is to give the restaurant at least a one week notice to prepare their response.
What if a restaurant prefers not to respond? A restaurant may not decide to respond for a number of reasons and I don't think it is a negative reflection on them if they don't wish to participate. In Joe's estimation, he feels that maybe only 25% will actually respond. I would hope that I will get a higher percentage than that, but that is where the experiment will eventually bear fruit. Depending on how successful this is, I may decide to continue doing it or simply give up the effort after about a four to six week period. Managing the staging blog does add extra work for me, but if the end result is a more robust review that benefits not only the diner but also the restaurant, then I am certainly willing to put in the time.
Sadly, the restaurant from which I have been banned did not and does not have a website of their own, so in that case, it wouldn't have helped the situation since I wouldn't have been able to contact them electronically.
This new, revised review process is set to start with the publication of tomorrow's entry about a recent lunch experience I had at Vaccaro's Trattoria. What do all of you think about this idea? I'd love to hear your comments about whether adding this type of response to my restaurant reviews will add more value to your experience here on the blog.
Showing posts with label food reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food reviews. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
An Unwelcome Guest
It's official, I have earned a food writer's Red Badge of Courage: I have been banned from my very first restaurant.
News of the banning came to me yesterday not from the restaurant itself, but from a friend who is a reader and occasional commenter. Many, many months ago, he and I agreed to meet mid-way between Cleveland and Akron to exchange some freshly baked bread I had made for him. He suggested that we stop by a restaurant that he had eaten at once before and wanted to try again. Being that there was no seating available in the restaurant, we took our order to go and found a local park in which to eat it. Afterwards, we parted company and I came home and wrote up my review of the food. The article itself posted in late 2009 and with it came what I would consider a normal amount of traffic from my devoted readers. After several days, the number of requests for that particular piece fell off, as I would expect them to.
Fast forward to around a month and a half ago, I experienced a sudden three day surge of page requests for this very same restaurant. It wasn't until I started digging around that I realized that a nationally televised talk show host had identified not only this restaurant, but a very specific menu item as being his/her favorite. Apparently this served as very effective advertising for the restaurant as my stat numbers surged. Unfortunately, since the restaurant did not have a website of their own, the next most relevant link appeared instead: A link to my piece. Not only that, but I had eaten and reviewed the very product that the talk show host had promoted on the show.
Eventually, the clamor died down once again and I stopped seeing search engine links from people trying to find the restaurant. I don't know if the restaurant in question hadn't thought it might be a good idea to turn one of the available Internet search engines onto itself until yesterday, but when they did, they found a link to the nationally televised talk show and directly beneath that one, a link to my article. The connection to my friend comes from the fact that he had not only left a comment on my review, but also left a business card with them during the original visit (for possible future-related work). For reasons that only the restaurant's owner knows, he decided to call him. In my mind, that was a mistake.
It won't shock many of you out there reading this to know that if you share your opinion on a public forum like a blog, you are bound to have lovers and haters. Talk about something on which everyone has an opinion, like food and restaurants, and you are guaranteed to ruffle a few feathers. While I would love to say nothing but positive comments about every food experience I have, it would not be an accurate representation of the reality of food service and restaurant scene. As it turns out, there have been thankfully few completely negative reviews. In most cases, a restaurant will do some things right and some things wrong. I decided early on that I would point out each side as both are important to understanding how well the business is meeting the needs of its customers. And in the end, a restaurant is a business like any other and if they are not selling a product or service that customers are willing to buy, they will eventually close.
No attempt was made by this restaurant to contact me directly. I purposely listed my email address in my blog template so that every single article available on this site has at least two links. Additionally, since I allow anonymous posters, no one has any excuse for not feeling like they do not have the ability to reach me. Since I actively moderate the comments to make sure that they stay on topic and relevant, I read every single comment. In fact, the moment anyone posts a comment to any blog entry, I am immediately notified by email the contents of the new comment and to which entry it was made.
I feel quite bad that my friend and commenter had to field a phone call by an irate restaurant owner. My friend told me about the incident not because the owner told him to, but because he thought that I should know about this exchange of information. While the restaurant owner did not specifically forbid my friend from returning, I have been officially labeled persona non grata and asked to remove the offending restaurant review. At the same time, the restaurant owner also expressed the desire that I should review them again to give them another shot. I'm sorry, but if I'm not welcome to walk through your front door, then how exactly will I be able to pick up my food?
I am more than happy to provide constructive feedback with the management of any restaurant and I am willing to return for a second visit to see if the experience has been improved. However, banning me from your restaurant and demanding that I take down what was not even close to being a scathing review does not cut it with me. In my opinion, the proper way to handle this would've been an email or comment such as:
"Hello, my name is Mr. X and I am the owner of Restaurant Y. I noticed from your review that you didn't have the kind of positive food experience that we want all of our customers to walk away with. I would really like to open a dialogue with you about your concerns and resolve them to your satisfaction. Finally, I would appreciate the opportunity for a second chance and invite you back at your convenience to give us another shot."
THAT, gentle reader, is an appropriate response. And one, quite honestly, that I would've taken in a very positive way and gladly worked with the owner to help in what ever way I could. Contrary to this restaurant's belief, I want the locally owned independent restaurants to not only survive, but also thrive. For God's sake, the constant homogenization of the American culinary scene is a threat that is poised to erase every major city's individuality. These local restaurants are what makes Cleveland ... Cleveland! There is a reason I choose not to write about Appleby's and The Cheesecake Factory.
Many of the closest friends with whom I have confided about this event have asked me to name the restaurant. I could do that. But I won't. Writing this blog was never about engaging in a pissing contest with anyone else, be it a person or an entity. Of course, intelligent dialogue is always encouraged and appreciated, whether you agree with what I have to say or not. Unfortunately in this case, the only dialogue that happened was through a third party. I don't know whether the restaurant owner who contacted my friend was a technical Luddite or simply didn't want to confront me directly, but the act smacks of a lack of professionalism.
Will you, gentle reader, be able to figure out which restaurant I've been talking about this entire time? I've left enough clues that if you are moderately driven, I am not doubtful that you may be able to find the exact entry. I stand by what I wrote then and I stand by it now. If you don't like what I had to say, that is certainly your prerogative. But instead of turning a negative situation into a downright awful one, at least have the forethought to try and improve it to the best of your ability. At least make an attempt.
Finally, as for the entreaty to remove the allegedly spurious review of the restaurant from my blog? I'll keep it family-friendly and simply say, I don't think so.
News of the banning came to me yesterday not from the restaurant itself, but from a friend who is a reader and occasional commenter. Many, many months ago, he and I agreed to meet mid-way between Cleveland and Akron to exchange some freshly baked bread I had made for him. He suggested that we stop by a restaurant that he had eaten at once before and wanted to try again. Being that there was no seating available in the restaurant, we took our order to go and found a local park in which to eat it. Afterwards, we parted company and I came home and wrote up my review of the food. The article itself posted in late 2009 and with it came what I would consider a normal amount of traffic from my devoted readers. After several days, the number of requests for that particular piece fell off, as I would expect them to.
Fast forward to around a month and a half ago, I experienced a sudden three day surge of page requests for this very same restaurant. It wasn't until I started digging around that I realized that a nationally televised talk show host had identified not only this restaurant, but a very specific menu item as being his/her favorite. Apparently this served as very effective advertising for the restaurant as my stat numbers surged. Unfortunately, since the restaurant did not have a website of their own, the next most relevant link appeared instead: A link to my piece. Not only that, but I had eaten and reviewed the very product that the talk show host had promoted on the show.
Eventually, the clamor died down once again and I stopped seeing search engine links from people trying to find the restaurant. I don't know if the restaurant in question hadn't thought it might be a good idea to turn one of the available Internet search engines onto itself until yesterday, but when they did, they found a link to the nationally televised talk show and directly beneath that one, a link to my article. The connection to my friend comes from the fact that he had not only left a comment on my review, but also left a business card with them during the original visit (for possible future-related work). For reasons that only the restaurant's owner knows, he decided to call him. In my mind, that was a mistake.
It won't shock many of you out there reading this to know that if you share your opinion on a public forum like a blog, you are bound to have lovers and haters. Talk about something on which everyone has an opinion, like food and restaurants, and you are guaranteed to ruffle a few feathers. While I would love to say nothing but positive comments about every food experience I have, it would not be an accurate representation of the reality of food service and restaurant scene. As it turns out, there have been thankfully few completely negative reviews. In most cases, a restaurant will do some things right and some things wrong. I decided early on that I would point out each side as both are important to understanding how well the business is meeting the needs of its customers. And in the end, a restaurant is a business like any other and if they are not selling a product or service that customers are willing to buy, they will eventually close.
No attempt was made by this restaurant to contact me directly. I purposely listed my email address in my blog template so that every single article available on this site has at least two links. Additionally, since I allow anonymous posters, no one has any excuse for not feeling like they do not have the ability to reach me. Since I actively moderate the comments to make sure that they stay on topic and relevant, I read every single comment. In fact, the moment anyone posts a comment to any blog entry, I am immediately notified by email the contents of the new comment and to which entry it was made.
I feel quite bad that my friend and commenter had to field a phone call by an irate restaurant owner. My friend told me about the incident not because the owner told him to, but because he thought that I should know about this exchange of information. While the restaurant owner did not specifically forbid my friend from returning, I have been officially labeled persona non grata and asked to remove the offending restaurant review. At the same time, the restaurant owner also expressed the desire that I should review them again to give them another shot. I'm sorry, but if I'm not welcome to walk through your front door, then how exactly will I be able to pick up my food?
I am more than happy to provide constructive feedback with the management of any restaurant and I am willing to return for a second visit to see if the experience has been improved. However, banning me from your restaurant and demanding that I take down what was not even close to being a scathing review does not cut it with me. In my opinion, the proper way to handle this would've been an email or comment such as:
"Hello, my name is Mr. X and I am the owner of Restaurant Y. I noticed from your review that you didn't have the kind of positive food experience that we want all of our customers to walk away with. I would really like to open a dialogue with you about your concerns and resolve them to your satisfaction. Finally, I would appreciate the opportunity for a second chance and invite you back at your convenience to give us another shot."
THAT, gentle reader, is an appropriate response. And one, quite honestly, that I would've taken in a very positive way and gladly worked with the owner to help in what ever way I could. Contrary to this restaurant's belief, I want the locally owned independent restaurants to not only survive, but also thrive. For God's sake, the constant homogenization of the American culinary scene is a threat that is poised to erase every major city's individuality. These local restaurants are what makes Cleveland ... Cleveland! There is a reason I choose not to write about Appleby's and The Cheesecake Factory.
Many of the closest friends with whom I have confided about this event have asked me to name the restaurant. I could do that. But I won't. Writing this blog was never about engaging in a pissing contest with anyone else, be it a person or an entity. Of course, intelligent dialogue is always encouraged and appreciated, whether you agree with what I have to say or not. Unfortunately in this case, the only dialogue that happened was through a third party. I don't know whether the restaurant owner who contacted my friend was a technical Luddite or simply didn't want to confront me directly, but the act smacks of a lack of professionalism.
Will you, gentle reader, be able to figure out which restaurant I've been talking about this entire time? I've left enough clues that if you are moderately driven, I am not doubtful that you may be able to find the exact entry. I stand by what I wrote then and I stand by it now. If you don't like what I had to say, that is certainly your prerogative. But instead of turning a negative situation into a downright awful one, at least have the forethought to try and improve it to the best of your ability. At least make an attempt.
Finally, as for the entreaty to remove the allegedly spurious review of the restaurant from my blog? I'll keep it family-friendly and simply say, I don't think so.
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Right To Write
Credibility happens to be a ten letter word. It is also the life-blood for any kind of writer. Traditionally, getting a magazine article or book published gave you credibility. Whether you are buying the New York Times or Cosmo, you know that the editors and publishers of these nationally available printed materials have spent many years in their respective careers reviewing the good, the bad, and the ugly. They have invested the time and effort to build up the necessary skill and experience to know a good writer from bad.
Enter the world of the weblog, or blog for short. For the first time ever, a writer can not only write what he or she wants, but can publish their work as well to a global audience. Suddenly, what was once a stogid, well-entrenched system for disseminating ideas has become a grassroots movement for freedom of expression. As always, this is a double-edged sword. To publish a work that you also wrote requires that you be author, editor, and publisher. Fail at any one of these and you lose credibility. I can't count the number of times I have come across an interesting article on the web, only to find that the prose is so riddled with spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, and poor grammar that it becomes too painful to read.
The mechanics of successful writing aside, the entire point of a blog is to express a unique point of view. As you have no doubt already noticed, gentle reader, my point of view happens to be about food. Whether I'm eating it, making it, or talking about it, that will be what I am writing in my blog. But, as one longtime friend put it, what gives me the right to write about it? Why is my opinion more valuable, say, than Aunt Sally or your neighbor, Joe? Why should anyone believe what I have to say about anything?
The simple answer is that my opinion isn't more important than others. I put my pants on one leg at a time in the morning, just like everyone else. I don't own special magical cutlery that I use at mealtime to allow the vast array of flavors to be available to my taste buds alone. I don't have piles of cash available to me to travel the world eating at only the best restaurants and drinking only the most expensive wines. But then again, I don't think writing about my 50th experience at Alinea in Chicago or Per Se in New York would excite either me or you.
The biggest difference between myself and Aunt Sally is that I made the decision to have an outlet for my voice. If your Aunt Sally is like mine, she definitely has some strongly held beliefs. But if her ideas aren't out there in cyberspace to be read by others, does it matter? To be a tad bit cliche, if you write it (and hopefully write it well), they will (eventually) come. I didn't really believe this myself until I started monitoring my own blog's statistics. I naively assumed that if two people left a comment on a blog post, that only two people had actually read it. The truth of the matter is that for every comment you get, perhaps fifty or one hundred people have actually read the posting.
Okay, fine, so I have a voice and now I can express it because I took the time to register with Blogger, put some words in a box, and then hit 'Publish'. Big deal. What gives what I write credibility? Two concepts immediately jump into my head. Consistency is the first concept. Connecting with readers is the other. If I didn't apply the same consistent set of rules and expectations to every food experience I have, I couldn't be fair and as objective as possible. That I expect my $6 hamburger to be seasoned and cooked properly is no different to me than the $35 filet mignon I order at a fancy shmancy restaurant (that would be the technical foodie term, by the way). As I have come to learn over the years, really good food does not have a price point. I've had great $6 hamburgers and lousy $35 steaks.
I'll be the first one to acknowledge that being consistent is a great personal barometer to ensure that my writing stays on the straight and narrow. Without connecting to readers, however, I might as well take this little dog and pony show offline and just start keeping a diary. Once I realized I HAD readers, and returning readers to boot, I have to honest, it did change the way I thought about writing. It wasn't that I started to believe that I needed to pander needlessly to the whims of the everyday blog reader. Instead, I decided to start asking myself one simple question, "If I was reading about a restaurant for the first time, would this bit of knowledge be something I would want to know ahead of time?"
In my particular case, I also enjoy the freedom to express my opinions using mixed media. In addition to the words that I write, I post photos (almost all of which are taken by me), videos, and links to help tell my story. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. I can write paragraph after paragraph about how sloppy the plate looks, but if I show just one photo demonstrating my point, I can instantly convey my thought to the reader. I've often thought how challenging it would be to write nothing but prose when trying to describe an entire food experience. On the plus side, I suppose my entries would be a heck of a lot shorter.
For me, credibility is about earning your trust. Trust isn't just about blind faith. I would never ask for blind faith; I don't have that myself for anyone else. Earning your trust means that you believe I am employing critical thinking skills when I give an opinion and that I've done my due diligence to collect as many facts as I can before rendering my opinion. One of the most thrilling aspects of writing on a publicly accessible blog is that putting myself out there for review demands that I now have accountability. If I make an error, I can expect to be challenged. I have been called on it in the past and will no doubt be called on it again.
At the end of the day, what you are left with is something more valuable than just my contribution. While clearly my job is to start the conversation, interacting with readers through comments and emails is where real value is established. While it's always nice to hear that others have had similar experiences to mine, I also firmly feel that people who challenge my assertions are valuable to the discussion as well. Even I don't take myself so seriously that I ask you to believe that the words that appear on my blog have been uttered by a booming voice that came from a cloud at the top of a mountain.
From talking with friends, family members, and readers out there on the Internet, I get the impression that a lot of people feel that they could never write a blog. They look at me and see how large the blog has gotten to be in just over a year. Frankly, sometimes I can't believe how successful the blog has become in just one year. But, if like me, you are passionate about the subject matter, you'll find your voice and the desire to share it. A blog just ends up being a convenient outlet.
So, at the end of the day, what gives me the right to write? As it turns out, all of us have the right to write. It's just a fact of life that only some of us choose to do so. I'd love to hear what you think about the importance of credibility in bloggers, me specifically or bloggers in general.
Enter the world of the weblog, or blog for short. For the first time ever, a writer can not only write what he or she wants, but can publish their work as well to a global audience. Suddenly, what was once a stogid, well-entrenched system for disseminating ideas has become a grassroots movement for freedom of expression. As always, this is a double-edged sword. To publish a work that you also wrote requires that you be author, editor, and publisher. Fail at any one of these and you lose credibility. I can't count the number of times I have come across an interesting article on the web, only to find that the prose is so riddled with spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, and poor grammar that it becomes too painful to read.
The mechanics of successful writing aside, the entire point of a blog is to express a unique point of view. As you have no doubt already noticed, gentle reader, my point of view happens to be about food. Whether I'm eating it, making it, or talking about it, that will be what I am writing in my blog. But, as one longtime friend put it, what gives me the right to write about it? Why is my opinion more valuable, say, than Aunt Sally or your neighbor, Joe? Why should anyone believe what I have to say about anything?
The simple answer is that my opinion isn't more important than others. I put my pants on one leg at a time in the morning, just like everyone else. I don't own special magical cutlery that I use at mealtime to allow the vast array of flavors to be available to my taste buds alone. I don't have piles of cash available to me to travel the world eating at only the best restaurants and drinking only the most expensive wines. But then again, I don't think writing about my 50th experience at Alinea in Chicago or Per Se in New York would excite either me or you.
The biggest difference between myself and Aunt Sally is that I made the decision to have an outlet for my voice. If your Aunt Sally is like mine, she definitely has some strongly held beliefs. But if her ideas aren't out there in cyberspace to be read by others, does it matter? To be a tad bit cliche, if you write it (and hopefully write it well), they will (eventually) come. I didn't really believe this myself until I started monitoring my own blog's statistics. I naively assumed that if two people left a comment on a blog post, that only two people had actually read it. The truth of the matter is that for every comment you get, perhaps fifty or one hundred people have actually read the posting.
Okay, fine, so I have a voice and now I can express it because I took the time to register with Blogger, put some words in a box, and then hit 'Publish'. Big deal. What gives what I write credibility? Two concepts immediately jump into my head. Consistency is the first concept. Connecting with readers is the other. If I didn't apply the same consistent set of rules and expectations to every food experience I have, I couldn't be fair and as objective as possible. That I expect my $6 hamburger to be seasoned and cooked properly is no different to me than the $35 filet mignon I order at a fancy shmancy restaurant (that would be the technical foodie term, by the way). As I have come to learn over the years, really good food does not have a price point. I've had great $6 hamburgers and lousy $35 steaks.
I'll be the first one to acknowledge that being consistent is a great personal barometer to ensure that my writing stays on the straight and narrow. Without connecting to readers, however, I might as well take this little dog and pony show offline and just start keeping a diary. Once I realized I HAD readers, and returning readers to boot, I have to honest, it did change the way I thought about writing. It wasn't that I started to believe that I needed to pander needlessly to the whims of the everyday blog reader. Instead, I decided to start asking myself one simple question, "If I was reading about a restaurant for the first time, would this bit of knowledge be something I would want to know ahead of time?"
In my particular case, I also enjoy the freedom to express my opinions using mixed media. In addition to the words that I write, I post photos (almost all of which are taken by me), videos, and links to help tell my story. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. I can write paragraph after paragraph about how sloppy the plate looks, but if I show just one photo demonstrating my point, I can instantly convey my thought to the reader. I've often thought how challenging it would be to write nothing but prose when trying to describe an entire food experience. On the plus side, I suppose my entries would be a heck of a lot shorter.
For me, credibility is about earning your trust. Trust isn't just about blind faith. I would never ask for blind faith; I don't have that myself for anyone else. Earning your trust means that you believe I am employing critical thinking skills when I give an opinion and that I've done my due diligence to collect as many facts as I can before rendering my opinion. One of the most thrilling aspects of writing on a publicly accessible blog is that putting myself out there for review demands that I now have accountability. If I make an error, I can expect to be challenged. I have been called on it in the past and will no doubt be called on it again.
At the end of the day, what you are left with is something more valuable than just my contribution. While clearly my job is to start the conversation, interacting with readers through comments and emails is where real value is established. While it's always nice to hear that others have had similar experiences to mine, I also firmly feel that people who challenge my assertions are valuable to the discussion as well. Even I don't take myself so seriously that I ask you to believe that the words that appear on my blog have been uttered by a booming voice that came from a cloud at the top of a mountain.
From talking with friends, family members, and readers out there on the Internet, I get the impression that a lot of people feel that they could never write a blog. They look at me and see how large the blog has gotten to be in just over a year. Frankly, sometimes I can't believe how successful the blog has become in just one year. But, if like me, you are passionate about the subject matter, you'll find your voice and the desire to share it. A blog just ends up being a convenient outlet.
So, at the end of the day, what gives me the right to write? As it turns out, all of us have the right to write. It's just a fact of life that only some of us choose to do so. I'd love to hear what you think about the importance of credibility in bloggers, me specifically or bloggers in general.
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