Brian Luscher has better knife skills than you and isn't afraid to use them
The Blogosphere has chefs and restaurateurs on their toes.
Professional restaurant critics and amateur online reviewers are eager to explore every nook and cranny of newly opened restaurants from the first moment the doors are unlocked.
“If you’re charging full price, you’re ready to be reviewed,” is a common refrain I hear from many restaurant critics, including some at newspapers and magazines. I subscribe to that notion, too. Whether you’ve been open for a few days or a few years, every restaurant should be fair game.
But for those engaged in the leisurely pursuit of dining critique, I’d like to offer some advice: Enter the dining experience with no preconceptions or expectations–other than that you hope to have an enjoyable dining experience.
As a business owner, I can tell you that I and every other restaurant owner want you to have a positive experience. So why does it seem as though some restaurant critics and food bloggers have little intention of liking the food or the service before they’ve even stepped out of their cars? What’s fair about that?
One last thing. Please, put your iPhone down and step away. A picture might be able to tell 1,000 words, but it seems to me that too many armchair reviewers are consumed with capturing every nuance (with dreamy depth of field) and every angle of the food, decor, lighting, server uniforms, flatware, and napery that they miss out on the actual dining experience.
Why not just sit down and have dinner?
Comments are welcome…
Editor’s Note: Brian Luscher is the chef and co-owner of The Grape restaurant in Dallas. Earlier this year, Texas Monthly called The Grape’s hamburger the best in Texas, which is why he’s been deluged with critics and bloggers. Full disclosure: I reviewed The Grape for the Dallas Morning News when Luscher was the chef but not an owner. It was a terrific place then, and it’s even better now.
–Mike Hiller
You’re right. And I think paid and unpaid critics should heed your comments. If, after entrusting their stomachs and wallets to a restaurateur, they feel overjoyed or underwhelmed it is well within their rights to state that (and explain why). But gunning for someone because they’ve gotten good (or bad) notices, or for some other agenda, is dishonest and should be exposed.
I am a big fan of the Grape, actually had a wonderful dinner there this past Saturday. While I agree with much of what Chef has to say, on occasion I like to snap a picture of something that looks exceptional simply to remember and I don’t feel it is an impediment to a great dining expereience.
In August, I did surreptitiously get served Sanka (ick–they should know better) when I ordered decaf with my dessert at a favorite upscale eatery. I was mildly astonished, but the rest of the meal was superior–so I didn’t go bonkers. I sort of figured that’s what I get for ordering decaf on a Saturday night with about 80 people in house. Subsequently, I did NOT go online and gross about inferior coffee. No. My thought is anyone who feels compelled to go to that much trouble isn’t interested in dining. He/she is interested in whining. I usually have more trouble with my fellow diners, with their cell phones and bad manners, than I do with the dinner/chef/restaurant staff. And I LOVE The Grape!
I also would like to know when I can eat that roast pig dish being prepped in the PICTURE
fletch- take a snap or two if you want, that’s cool. some blogeros get a little caught up in their ‘assignment’
I totally agree with Luscher, but I think the world is a better place because of bloggers. I’ve had a lot of bad food (not at the Grape) and bad service and I think other people should know about it. On the flip side, unlike the Dallas Morning News critic, I dont attack, I comment.
That’s fair enough. I think I try to do those things. While I don’t hype what I find to be mediocre or overrated, I try to say something positive about good experiences as well, since I find that sort of information from other people to be of value.
The problem is without bloggers it is sometimes hard to tell which critics are really being paid by someone with a vested interest in receiving a good review(i.e. hotel chain or chamber of comerce) Some critics also get caught up in their own celibrity and lose the ability to be unbiased and only want to be recognized. The public is not able to distingish which “expert” is being paid for what and by whom.
Bern: Are you aware of any bloggers or professional critics who are being paid by restaurant owners, hotel chains or chambers of commerce in order to deliver positive reviews? If so, please let us know who they are!
All renumeration is not direct. But if trips, meals,flights,lodging,cocktails,and wine are “comped”, an air of bias can exist and you can sometimes get what you pay for.
I went to the Grape for the sole purpose of trying the burger and based on previous visits and trying Chef Luscher’s award winning ribeye in Hico, I fully expected greatness. I was slightly disappointed in the burger but I also blogged that it probably had to do with a 2 hour wait on a Sunday morning with everyone ordering burgers overwhelming the kitchen. I do plan on going back when the hype dies down and burgers go back to being sold 5-10 a week.
I’m glad to see the discussion has stayed on topic. Over on the Eats Blog, not so much. It’s also lively on SideDish, so here’s what I posted there.
It seems to me Luscher was directing his comments primarily at those bloggers and casual Web commenters who don’t feel any obligation to present fair, comprehensive reviews. How can they, when they only visit once and may have ordered something on the menu that they personally didn’t like. Poor choice? We’ve all chosen things on the menu we wouldn’t order again. Never been to NYC? How can you judge a NYC-style deli?That’s why we critics tend to be well-traveled, visit restaurants multiple times and eat across the menu. But that’s not the nature of the Blogosphere’s Wild West environment. When Luscher calls out “those engaged in the leisurely pursuit of dining critique” for snapping photos with their iPhones, “consumed with capturing every nuance,” he indirectly makes a valid point: How can you enjoy the dining experience as intended by the chef/owner/staff, if you’re rewriting the script, looking for fault, introducing your own subtext? Critics at the larger publications (I can vouch for this), visit several times and most strive to give a balanced view. You’ll probably recall a few critics in the past who bent over backwards to avoid deprecating critique. Not so in the Blogosphere. And the scalp/hatchet comment, well, that was added for spice in the final edit and has since been removed.
And here’s what I posted on Eats:
Brian Luscher’s comments on EscapeHatchDallas.com were directed primarily at bloggers–just like he says in the first sentence. I probably fanned the flames by adding a couple of lines about scalping, hatchets and FoodTV, which, in hindsight, was a mistake. That led some readers to believe Brian was swinging at Leslie Brenner, which I don’t think was the case. Those sentences shouldn’t have been attributed to Luscher without his approval, and I have since removed them.
and back on SideDish:
Yep, I was wrong. Dead wrong. I shouldn’t have added anything to Brian’s post without his approval. No question. I apologize.
If Luscher was talking primarily about bloggers, why did he mention restaurant critics so often? Why did you make the title of his post “What One Dallas Chef Thinks About Restaurant Critics” instead of “What One Dallas Chef Thinks About Bloggers”? Instead of editing for “spice,” you should have edited for clarity. Even now, no one knows who or what Luscher is complaining about.
I generally lurk here, but am active on other sites such as Chow. I know there are people that are negative as a rule. Chow often weeds these purposely nasty remarks out, and even bans accounts that are consistently off color. I truly do not get the negative behavior, and can bet a few particularly nasty ones rarely, if ever, dine out. These comments are generally raking restaurantuers over prices and such but no actual information on the experience, which is nothing short of balderdash.
You will sometimes see me pull out my crackberry to snap a photo of a beautiful dish, but please do not take this as insulting. Rest assured that I will more than likely extol the virtues of the dish and establishment. As for me, I won’t purposely comment on a negative experience unless pulled into a thread for a comment. These are simply not worth my time or effort. However, as for me and my girlfriend (who I met on Chow) as we dine often grin and say we MUST share this experience with our friends online.
My background is as a restaurant and bar owner/ operator. I can appreciate the apprehensiveness of an unprofessional review that might deter a patron from dining at your restaurant. In these terrible economic times we need as many helping hands as possible so consider reviews such as mine, and many others, as a free advertisements.
On a similar note, I have seen such operators like Pyles, cruise the blogs and reply to comments. I applaud this effort, and think it brings chefs closer to their target audience. I believe one positive response such as this could gain more patrons than an ad in the News any day. Crying about it won’t help, it’s just the times we live in.
My wife and I write on our own blogs and other forums about dining out – it seems that sometimes it’s all we do. I am a professional photographer so I can take a pretty good snap of a dish and my wife is getting pretty good too. We rarely shoot anything that is sub-par unless it is inedible. We try and make things look nice.
My wife, being a gentler, sweeter individual than I, usually writes kindly. Me, being Scottish and uptight, take it personally when I am served ill-prepared food at high prices. So I tend to rant a bit. However I do understand that there are ‘off’ nights when things go wrong. I accept that. That is why we usually go to most interesting places a number of times.
If I go to a restaurant and am greeted pleasantly, am served HOT food in a decent time-frame by servers who know what they are doing, I am over half-way to feeling all warm & fuzzy about a place. If none of the above happen then you have lost me already and the food better be bloody amazing to balance the disgruntlement I am feeling for your idea of hospitality.
Eating out is not an inexpensive proposition. If restaurateurs don’t treat their diners with loving care then they deserve to be dissed either by word of mouth or by the blog or by professionals.
Kessler Porker:
May I ask for you and your wife’s blog sites? I would love to visit them!