So let me get this straight. A group of bloggers invited their readers to create a flash mob on opening day at a new restaurant ... and then complained about slow service?? That's not cool.
Nikki at GritCity is right: go in shifts.
Name an independent restaurant in Tacoma that could handle 36 people showing up at once (Ed Murrieta's count; KFnet calls out 19 by name) and get you served within an hour, even 2. It's really hard and requires a big staff to do it.
It is unfair to criticize Mary's Burger Bistro for service in these circumstances, or to even chalk it up to opening day kinks. Service was slow because 36 people showed up at noon. Those people showed up at noon because the bloggers invited them there.
There's a reason a professional food critic visits a restaurant multiple times and orders multiple dishes and gives the staff a few months to work the kinks out: because opening a restaurant is really hard.
Yes, everyone who went to Mary's Burger Bistro was generally positive, and it's great that a group of bloggers would hang out and support a local owner. But it's not cool to fault them for slow service when you yourself were the cause.
I have grown very wary of blogged restaurant reviews. I've enjoyed writing them from time to time, but I've also noticed the Tacoma blogosphere has been hard on restaurant openings. Masa suffered from blogger buzz before they were ready; St. Helens Cafe was tried, sentenced, and executed within its first week by many.
I think that we need to give these local owners a lot more time before any negative comments. 6 hours into the life of the restaurant doesn't seem like enough. Restaurateurs are trying to make it in one of the most difficult businesses out there. Their success is Tacoma's success by getting people out in their hometown.
But when every restaurant has to be perfect on opening day to avoid bad comments from bloggers, the small family owned restaurants that needs a month to work out the kinks isn't going to make it.
Behind every small restaurant opening is an owner stretched to the gills and it would be good if those with megaphones gave them a chance before a review.
UPDATE: I really didn't want to attack anyone, so sorry if you felt that, Ensie. The Tacoma blogging community truly is a group of citizen journalists. Some post reviews, other post experiences, as Jenyum points out. I just felt that 6 hours after opening is a hard time to test drive a restaurant and feel it's too early for a negative comment in print. Clearly, every review was a positive one. But if we are citizen journalists, I think it's important to remember how seriously the printed word can affect things.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
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8 comments:
Wow Erik, I think you're being a little hard on the blogging community. Yes, a lot of bloggers commented on the wait because it was significant, however, most weren't terribly negative and said that they chalked it up to opening day stuff that will work out in a week or two. Mary and Mr. Mary were very excited to have a big opening and talked with all of us. Even Ed mentioned that he didn't mind waiting so long for such a good burger. It was fun and lent a certain feeling to the day.
A little bit of criticism is OK - it would be unfair for us all to say it was a perfect experience when it wasn't. And it's not as though every person in the door was a blogger or there because of the blogger invite. Probably half were there due to their own initiative.
Most of the bloggers commented that they would be back to Mary's in the future when the place wasn't as busy, specifically pointing out, again, that today was a special occasion. I know I will be, and in the mean time the restaurant got lots of local publicity, very little negative because people understand that the first day of a restaurant is about working out kinks and a special event was going on.
I know when I go back I'll write about my next experience and how great it is. Just like I'll be writing about my next few experiences at The Red Hot soon.
BTW - have you been yet?
I think sometimes it's difficult to interpret tone in a written review. It's also difficult in the blogosphere to distinguish a "review" from an account of something that happened to the blogger, which is not always the same thing.
We all showed up at the same time and yeah, that was really hard on the restaurant. We really ought to do that differently. It was also a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun and I *hope* that came out in what I wrote because that is what I meant to say. (Not that your post is all about me or something, I'm just explaining my point of view)
It did also take a really long time to get the food, which was cool under the circumstances, but it did happen and it happened to many people at the same time - so what is a blogger to do? Not mention that? Or try to say "hey, this happened but this is why." If a professional restaurant critic went to something like that with 30 other restaurant critics and the same thing happened, he or she would be criticized for not mentioning it.
I think a great deal about the difference between a blogger and a professional restaurant critic, actually. One of the things I think about often is that the professional restaurant critic has a decided advantage: the expense account. When I have a really bad restaurant experience, particularly with my family along for the ride, I can't afford to go back to that place three or four times just to prove that the food is still bad or give the restaurant a chance to redeem themselves. In my particular blog that's especially difficult because it's not a "Bad Days in Tacoma" blog - that meal just gets to suck and I still have to find something to write about that day, even if I just spent my budget. I'm thinking about finding a place for bad reviews, but I prefer not to write them at all, I'd prefer not to need to!
Ultimately though, the average customer is in the same situation as jane doe unpaid blogger, they are just going to the restaurant to eat and are likely to only give it one shot if a place is bad.
I'm not putting Mary's in that category, though! Today was fun, and it was a totally different dining experience than an average day at a restaurant. I'd hope readers are smart enough to realize that and give the place a try for themselves.
So should everyone avoid opening night at a Horatio show while you work out the kinks? Is that a policy the actors on your payroll would endorse?
We all had a great time out there today. If you were there, you would've seen that and how much we enjoyed supporting a new local spot. Everyone was positive in the end and highly accommodating on-site and on-website. The owners took everything in stride and rose to the occasion.
Blogged restaurant reviews are great because 1) they're informal and usually written for a normal person by a normal person and 2) they check in with restaurants at any time rather than once by a professional reviewer. These are just more perspectives for the person out there hitting Google for info. That's the beauty of the web. No one voice controls the conversation nor should.
Being out there today seeing Tacomans come out to support a new local business is exciting. I know I'll be back there. It's a great place run by great people and I know that because I was there along with a lot of other enthusiastic Tacomans.
"Those people showed up at noon because you invited them there."
Was this an open letter to anyone in particular or is that just a grammatical slip?
Thanks for responding. But I want to make sure you know what my specific irk here is.
It's not organizing a group to go to a restaurant, or community building, or saying bad things about a restaurant.
My problem is that a flash mob will create delays and that it is unfair to assign any blame to the restaurant for it. It's not a matter of fixing kinks, kinks are normal. But this kink wasn't their fault and I feel like they're being faulted for it. That's my only problem with the blogging that happened after today's event.
As to reviews, the established way for professional restaurant reviewers is to go at least 2 - 4 times at a variety of hours and sample the foods and service and then write a review. That usually happens at least a month after open if not later.
Speeding that up, as instantaneous reviews from blogs have done, makes it harder for smaller owners to get their restaurants off the ground if they get bad press early.
As to reviews of theater that you mention, Kevin, the custom has always been a review of a late preview or opening night, which gives the theater a time to work out the kinks during dress rehearsals. I have no problem with bad reviews at the Horatio (and I've got them) that come from opening night. I wouldn't like any review to come out the first time the actors are off-book though. That's the analogy I see.
I don't know. If we all had to follow that standard, I think it would be pretty grandiose, time consuming, and expensive. I'm not sure its realistic to expect bloggers to try a restaurant that many times before writing about it. No one is paying us, or looking over our shoulders.
Up to now, my personal policy has been to only give a restaurant a full entry if the experience was good or at worst mixed, recognizing that I can't really give them another chance.
I'm seriously thinking of changing this though. I've had a string of bad dining experiences lately that have cost me some money time and calories that I really didn't want to be spending on bad food and service. If I were talking to a friend about these restaurants, I would certainly tell them to avoid them, but I'm not including them in my blog and increasingly I think this is a disservice.
The great thing about blogs is that you can comment on them, if someone else has a different experience they can say so, or write it up in their own blog! My opinion is just my opinion, as is yours and everyone who reads these blogs. (And really, it's not so very many people around here.) I'm not pretending to be a professional restaurant critic and I don't think any of the other local bloggers are either.
Mary's has gotten great publicity this week, and I'm sure they'll continue to benefit from it.
One thing that hasn't been brought up to your "flash mob" assumption is that it wasn't a "Surprise! Eleventy billion people want food now!" approach. Kevin was diligent in talking with Mary, interviewing her and meeting with her the day before and letting her know that the word was out on the blogs about meeting there for lunch on opening day where between 15 - 25 people may show up because of his efforts. Mary and Travis were happy about it, and even were xeroxing flyers to spread around town for additional hype about opening day. And as for the reviews, even Mr. Murrieta has commented on opening day. The blog reviews I've read all say that they're coming back. And I'm sure professional and bloggers alike are probably going to review this more than once. I highly doubt Mary is getting screwed by the attention. Give the blog reader community some credit. A "long wait on the first day while they're working out the kinks" is NOT the kind of criticism that makes someone think "Wow, I'm NEVER checking that place out."
I appreciate the apology. However, I'm not backing down.
If you aren't going to test drive a restaurant after it's open, when are you going to test it? The doors are open, they were making flyers to find more business, and the blogger meetup had been planned in advance. More customers is always better than less customers.
You can make yourself a badge that reads "citizen journalist" but I plan on writing whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it, sans label.
Well I must add my two cents worth on this. If Ed counted 36 people for the lunch hour that seems like a typical lunch crowd between the hours of 11:30 and 1:00. I do not believe the bloggers swamped the establishment in any way. Many people at my office saw it was open on their way in to work yesterday morning and word of mouth travelled fast.
I work down town and frequent various new and old restaurants. When the Pita Pit first opened the lines were long and seating was no where to be found. Like a burger, most of their menu items were grilled; the difference is that it took 10-15 minutes or so to get food and walk out the door. Frisko Freeze is another example. Some days they are extremely busy, but the wait still does not exceed an hour.
Mary's will have to adapt to having a constant rush at lunch as there are not many burger places around the downtown area.
I think Mary's will do fine once they figure out thier system and learn after time how to prepare better for a large lunch crowd.
It was nice to see everyone who was understanding about the wait and the staff kept thier cool... the cookies were awesome!
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