How Being Named the 'Best New Restaurant in America' Hurt My Business

Post by Chris2048 » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 3:34 PM UTC

Asbostos wrote: post #114

hluska wrote: post #6

You know, at the risk of heaping on the negativity, I read their Yelp ratings and while some are excellent, others are genuinely a sign of a restaurant in crisis. Consider the gentleman from New Zealand who made reservations via an email to the owner five weeks in advance, spent the afternoon walking around downtown LA to avoid rush hour traffic, and then showed up only to be told that they were closed for a wine tas…

Perhaps the New Zealander reviewer wouldn't have invested so much time and preparation into one meal if he didn't have high expectations? Sure it's bad if they didn't respect his reservation, but you don't reserve a seat at McDonalds that far in advance so you don't have the opportunity to suffer that problem.

Post by Chris2048 » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 3:47 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #42

gyardley wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, there are wines that go better with certain dishes than others. If you order a wine on your own and it doesn't go with the food, it's your own damn fault, but on a tasting menu with wine pairings it's 100% understood by the customers that the sommelier has spent some time identifying and selecting good matches for each course. I can't tell from the grandparent comment whether he's grousing about a bad choice he m…

Taste is, by its very definition, subjective. A mismatch between the taste of this commenter's apparently very sensitive palette and that of the menu designer does not qualify as a "rip-off".

Post by scott_karana » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

belleandsebasti wrote: post #124

tptacek wrote: post #43

I started Matasano with two partners, both from NYC, one of whom had taken a break from software security to go to culinary school. What I heard from them is that stuff like this is also part of the restaurant culture of different cities. The rap on NYC and LA is that they have competitive, take-down cultures (NYC more so than LA).

Whoa, you started matasano?

Post by byuu » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 10:50 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #120

byuu wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So when people are heaping hate on one of my projects, I am now starting to think of it as a failure of messaging on my behalf. I tried that, but I got really burned out. Someone writes a one-liner "I hate byuu's idea for X", and I write up an article explaining my motivations and rationale, spending three hours on it, listing a dozen cases where I explain why what I am doing is essential , and not just whimsical f…

Yes, it is hard. I have a very good friend who quit his job in finance three years ago to focus on photography. (It's been a significant improvement to his health and happiness, but that's a story for a different day.) He has been doing a lot of very abstract photography, lately. He shoots and develops his own film in a pinhole camera he built, and the imagery is intentionally motion-blurred. He gets heaps of praise…

Post by vehementi » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 11:31 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #63

vehementi wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> restaurant in crisis Then you talk about an example where they forgot to cancel a reservation, and one where the restaurant was closed and a customer didn't call ahead to check before driving for an hour (why is driving for an hour through rush hour something that reflects on the restaurant?). Then one guy who didn't like the food style. None of those point even remotely to a restaurant being in crisis, so let's lo…

Why would you call ahead? It's a reservation! By definition, you have already called ahead! I have never in my life heard of anyone calling ahead to check on their reservation.