Another approach for restaurants to handle reviewers

[gfron1]

ARTICLE

 

I know I'm not the only one who thought Jordan Kahn was a hero for outing Irene Virbila (albeit cruel), but this approach is even better.  Reviewer comes in, you feed them, you comp the bill.  Now they have an ethical, and sometimes policy conundrum. Most papers won't allow them to write the review.  Check.  Mate.  Your move reviewers.

[Smithy]

Clever! One would hope the offending newspaper would realize they had a PR problem, but this story suggests otherwise. I hope their readership gets the whole story instead of the Editorial Board's version.

[Mjx]

Leaving aside the fact that there's a good chance of at least one restaurant critic/editor/publication owner reading this topic, I'm not so sure this wouldn't just look like an attempt at bribery.

[gfron1]

I think the way they handled it - documenting everything - takes away the bribery aspect, especially considering that they made it clear that their goal was to not be reviewed with a star. Big picture for me is how this evolution of chefs fighting reviews is rolling out.  Again, numerous chefs throwing reviewers out TO Kahn outing an anonymous reviewer TO this strategy. 

 

And I know that there are many who don't like the comparison between chefs and artists, but artists are reviewed by professionals, but they DON'T get a star.  That means the review has to provide context, articulation of execution, and ultimately a sense of reviewer subjectivity based on their experience.  Restaurants don't get that level of thought in most cases.