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Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)

gfron1

By gfron1
in Restaurant Life

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chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

The link you posted is mashed up with the link for this thread. Clean link is here:

 

https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/dining/restaurants/reviews/at-bulrush-rob-connoley-fashions-a-vital-modern-restaurant-from/article_3b65410d-fb08-5755-8191-14725471ef81.html

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, gfron1 said:

Our big local review is OUT

 

I love that my staff's response was to immediately start dissecting the review and our operations to figure out what we need to do to be a 4 star restaurant.

 

That's terrific -- and "dissecting" is definitely the appropriate word here. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where that half a star went, except maybe for the parfait. Has he ever given four stars for a first review?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

And we aren't done yet for the day - HERE'S a story that released today on Vice.com

 Nice. Adam seems to get it!

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Chris Hennes

Chris Hennes

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, gfron1 said:

I love that my staff's response was to immediately start dissecting the review and our operations to figure out what we need to do to be a 4 star restaurant.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing what they figure out! I'll have to schedule another trip :).

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Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

This link keeps sending me back to this thread.  

Use the link in chromedome's post

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted

Nice review so I hate to criticize the reviewer but it looks like I'm (possibly unjustifiably) going to anyway...

"The meal ends with a sort of haute parfait: a single dish packed with cherries, almond cream, yogurt mousse, a cherry-hibiscus gelee, milk crumb and a cherry-hibiscus macaron. After the meticulously composed savory courses, it is a whirlwind of flavors and textures when, really, I just want another doughnut."

That reads to me like a politely stated "I'm not a dessert guy". I have no idea if that's the case or not, just has that feel to it. If it is the case, nothing's gonna make him be a dessert guy. But if you're not a dessert guy, why include the dessert as part of your review? A restaurant has no control over whether or not a person is into dessert, they're just serving you what you ordered (the tasting menu in this case, which includes dessert). Or maybe I'm just overly touchy on that subject because desserts are what I really enjoy doing and I got a bit fed-up with the dessert backlash thing where everybody was suddenly too cool for cake and ice cream and complained about silly things like "well the candy was delicious but it was sweet". :D

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted

Despite my mini rant above, it really is a nice review. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading the other article. That was like reading a good book, it pulled me in and kept me moving forward. It gets well into what you and your team do and why without feeling like a review or a lesson. Nicely done.

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Kim Shook

Kim Shook

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

Nice review so I hate to criticize the reviewer but it looks like I'm (possibly unjustifiably) going to anyway...

"The meal ends with a sort of haute parfait: a single dish packed with cherries, almond cream, yogurt mousse, a cherry-hibiscus gelee, milk crumb and a cherry-hibiscus macaron. After the meticulously composed savory courses, it is a whirlwind of flavors and textures when, really, I just want another doughnut."

That reads to me like a politely stated "I'm not a dessert guy". I have no idea if that's the case or not, just has that feel to it. If it is the case, nothing's gonna make him be a dessert guy. But if you're not a dessert guy, why include the dessert as part of your review? A restaurant has no control over whether or not a person is into dessert, they're just serving you what you ordered (the tasting menu in this case, which includes dessert). Or maybe I'm just overly touchy on that subject because desserts are what I really enjoy doing and I got a bit fed-up with the dessert backlash thing where everybody was suddenly too cool for cake and ice cream and complained about silly things like "well the candy was delicious but it was sweet". :D

I agree.  This happens a lot with all kinds of reviews.  I detest "reality TV" and never, ever watch it.  It wouldn't be fair for me to review one that is for folks who do like it.  I've seen reviews where the reviewer admits that they don't care for something and they will often include what their dining companions say about it.  

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Kim

Kim's Cookbook

What Fresh Hell is This?

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gfron1

gfron1

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16 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

That reads to me like a politely stated "I'm not a dessert guy". I have no idea if that's the case or not, just has that feel to it. If it is the case, nothing's gonna make him be a dessert guy. But if you're not a dessert guy, why include the dessert as part of your review? A restaurant has no control over whether or not a person is into dessert, they're just serving you what you ordered (the tasting menu in this case, which includes dessert). Or maybe I'm just overly touchy on that subject because desserts are what I really enjoy doing and I got a bit fed-up with the dessert backlash thing where everybody was suddenly too cool for cake and ice cream and complained about silly things like "well the candy was delicious but it was sweet". :D

I've gotten to know Ian fairly well over the past three years. He is not big on desserts, nor carbs, and it's clear from his reviews he is impressed by fussy service, which we very consciously do not do. One of our goals is to define what service and restaurant experiences should look like in 2019, which to my way of thinking does not include servers hovering around my table refilling water after every sip. He, like others, is having a hard time defining or understanding our big picture efforts.

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

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Kerry Beal

Kerry Beal

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

I've gotten to know Ian fairly well over the past three years. He is not big on desserts, nor carbs, and it's clear from his reviews he is impressed by fussy service, which we very consciously do not do. One of our goals is to define what service and restaurant experiences should look like in 2019, which to my way of thinking does not include servers hovering around my table refilling water after every sip. He, like others, is having a hard time defining or understanding our big picture efforts.

Then a 3 1/2 from him is like a 5 from anyone else!

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the Chocolate Doctor
www.thechocolatedoctor.ca

www.eztemper.com

 

Confectionary Course • Confectionary Course Q&A
eGullet foodblog 2006 • eGullet Foodblog 2012

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Alex

Alex

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7 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

I've gotten to know Ian fairly well over the past three years. He is not big on desserts, nor carbs, and it's clear from his reviews he is impressed by fussy service, which we very consciously do not do. One of our goals is to define what service and restaurant experiences should look like in 2019, which to my way of thinking does not include servers hovering around my table refilling water after every sip. He, like others, is having a hard time defining or understanding our big picture efforts.

 

Good to know. The review makes sense now. You're absolutely correct that he didn't really get the concept. To me, it was a perfectly chosen dessert, connecting its time and ours. "Meticulously composed" would have been out of place for this last course, which began a gentle parachute landing back to a more familiar world, so to speak.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

"The meal ends with a sort of haute parfait: a single dish packed with cherries, almond cream, yogurt mousse, a cherry-hibiscus gelee, milk crumb and a cherry-hibiscus macaron.

 

This was mind-bogglingly delicious. Not too sweet. I had had an extra course (because of a mix-up about gluten-free) so had really slowed down with the pork coppa. By the time dessert arrived, my hunger was slaked, so was able to vary each spoonful with different tastes.

 

Short of licking the dishes, I ate everything edible in that meal. Definitely let's plan another trip!

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gfron1

gfron1

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I don't know if he gets the concept or not because he's also limited by word count and we're a pretty concept dense restaurant. BTW, thanks to the feedback from the eG group we modified our portions including downsizing the entree (@ChrisHennes) and making the dessert more delicate and plated. As a result we added a course, but it was too much food so we dropped another (the peach and chanterelle pate which just wasn't clicking withe guests).

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

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TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted

@gfron1, I thought the pork entrée was a fine size 😧

The peach and chanterelle pâté divine 😟

And the dessert was just great 😟

However, I fully trust you to make any changes you like

It was an exquisite experience

And, I expect, shall be again . . . :)

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gfweb said:

More good press..

https://medium.com/@weeatstuff/industry-highlight-rob-connoley-8457ba58800a

 

Thrilled for Rob but link did not work for me.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
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4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Thrilled for Rob but link did not work for me.

 

Strange.  It did work for me.  Thoroughly enjoyed this with my morning coffee.  Congratulations once again, Rob.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Anna N said:

Strange.  It did work for me.  Thoroughly enjoyed this with my morning coffee.  Congratulations once again, Rob.

 

Works for me now; not sure what went wrong before.  Beautiful photographs.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, kayb said:

Great story. And since I had to dash back home unexpectedly and missed it, I'd certainly be up for doing it again!

 

 

Definitely. Let's maybe think about May and all the great spring foraging we could enjoy. And I'd appreciate a chance to explore StL again.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

A king can stand people's fighting, but he can't last long if people start thinking. -Will Rogers, humorist

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Toliver

Toliver

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Thrilled for Rob but link did not work for me.

 

It did not work for me...and then on a second attempt, it did.

Great story! Yeah, Rob! (But no photo of the wonderful drip wall :sad: ).

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“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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