Andrew Morrison

WF had the same query pop up yesterday. For something new, I suggested Sanuk and The Superior. Both welcome additions.

Chris Stearns?

Despite your best intentions, I have a feeling the restaurant would prefer to fill the spaces themselves as quickly as possible rather than wait for you to come to their rescue. I'm positive they would appreciate the sentiment and the intent, but aren't they the best folks to "ensure that these places have people there that night"? But I could be dead wrong. If you don't think cancelling your reservations is the best route in the short term, at least call them to ask what they think you should do to resolve this. At the very least, I'm sure they'd get a kick out of it.

Some news on what's going in across the street from Fuel and Gastropod.

What's more uncanny, that Arne shrunk or that he has grown back that lovely dark hair?

^ Or repeatedly reaping the profits of her words, good or bad.

I'd argue that Alexandra Gill, bless her, is responsible for making sure Rare survives by her attentions. She is a restaurant lover, after all.

As mentioned on UD this morning, chef Angus An will be filling us in on the first 100 hours of Gastropod.

Baru Latino. Suerte.

Yaletown's Diner has sold to Sean Heather. Word.

I saw the humour, but failed to find it amusing.

Just arrived. Roads are clear. A balmy 30 degrees. Bring shorts and sandals.

So nothing local, then?

Best of luck, Dave. When you wrote of negative bloggers/reviewers, you meant local, right?

Righto. Forgot where I was for a sec... I look forward to reading the next issue of Open Mouth. There's a big audience for food publications in Vancouver, and it's great to see one evolve before our eyes.

To clarify, Memo isn't taking my calls regarding a column.

He doesn't take my calls.

Oh, goodness. That is certainly not an "open attack of potential competition". The fellow asked for advice, and I believe what I gave him there was solid counsel. I'm quite sure he would agree. I was being more frank than harsh, and I wish him and Open Mouth all the best.

You'll gain a lot of credibility if your business immediately divorces itself from the reviewing process. Again, hire someone, pay them, and stay out of their way. Print what comes in, both the good and the bad. You might piss a few people off by being on the level, but that is the risk you take when you review anything. According to your website, you're in charge of Business Development. Ask yourself if your personal thoughts should come into the equation at all, and then weigh your answer against its relevance. If you're concerned about the hurt feelings of restaurateurs, tell your writers not to be. As it stands right now, just about every restaurant "blogger/reviewer" out there is doing a better job than Open Mouth with 1/100th of the budget, zero advertising, and no agenda, so I don't really think you're in a position to discount "just another" anything, David. Also, none of them are what I'd describe as particularly negative. Right now, it sounds like you are micromanaging editorial content. If you don't allow your writers the kind of independence of thought that translates to the page you'll stick dead and irrelevant to the industry and about as worthwhile a resource to the public as a puddle of pee. Also, look at what is working for other publications, both online and off (presumption is the mother of many things, but seldom success). You've got great potential, but if you want to make an impact on the dining scene in Vancouver within any reading demographic I think the only viable way to do so is through strength of editorial. In other words, I'd tell your editor and publisher to step away from the vehicle a little and let the writers do their own thing without having to toe a policy line of that uses "positive" and "negative" as goal posts. Don't forget that though the response hasn't been too warm, you're only one issue in. You've got lots of time to re-work and re-define. Best of luck.

Indeed. We could all use a few more footnotes in our writing. As for Open Mouth, my advice would be to hire an outside reviewer, pay him/her, and then get out of their way.

Well said, Jamie. I don't think anyone has linked to the list of winners yet as enRoute's feature only came online a few days ago. Here it is. Unless I'm very much mistaken, I think the Richard Perle-ing Jamie is referring to ("Monday morning quarter-backing") were some comments left on a recent post of mine. I don't know what the fuss is about. Everyone on the panel is solid. I would imagine the input of Barbara Jo Mackintosh and Heidi Noble would be particularly refreshing. That it's a list that has evolved and mutated over the last five years is a testament, also, to the seriousness with which enRoute takes the task, and usual suspects be damned (the list of panelists that supply Chris Johns with food for thought can be found here). In the end, I believe, it's Chris Johns' palate and experiences that account for restaurants one through ten, and not the favourites of the panelists. Of more interest than the writers, I should think, are the winners. For starters, is Nu the best new restaurant in Canada this year?

David Wolowidnyk at West is doing wonderful things at the bar, and if you're in the Seattle area have a look at Vessel, either just opened or on the verge.

There's been an almost testy little conversation about the awards methodology in the thread following the same story as linked above. BTW, the person who does the PR for Century doesn't do the PR for Nu.

Yes. Quite mostly.

Further details here.