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The Importance of the Restaurant
or Wine Critic...
and what does the future hold?
 The
first professional restaurant review may have been in the New York
Times in 1859, when the editor in chief told an unnamed reporter to
"go and dine" in order that he might provide an account of his
experiences. We've come a long way since then...
And now, with the Internet has come the huge (and seemingly
unstoppable) rise of consumer reviews, blogs, opinions; on anything
and everything. As always, food, travel & wine are favorite topics.
Millions of foodies (and travelers and wine lovers) are now civilian
critics, letting
Chowhound,
Yelp,
TripAdvisor,
Citysearch, and other sites in on their recent experiences.
Further adding to this global change, print publications are in
crisis, reducing journalistic staff, and making professional reviews
fewer and further between. Will professional reviewers become
extinct? And what the difference between a professional review and a
consumer review anyway?
Jeff Cox, who had been working independently as a writer since
1981, including as a restaurant reviewer, describes his view on the
differences between a professional reviewer and a consumer reviewer:
"When the restaurant reviewer is a journalist (someone with a degree
in journalism), then the review is an account of the reviewer’s
experience with no agenda behind it. It can be trusted to be
impartial. That makes it valuable to the restaurant as a reality
check to see where improvement may be needed, and to the customer,
who can be assured that his or her experience will reflect what the
reviewer found."
On consumer sites such as Yelp, Jeff says, "They are interesting and
entertaining, but not necessarily reflective of the restaurant. More
reflective of the writer’s state of mind, prejudices, etc. These
people aren’t trained journalists." And I can certainly see that in
many (although certainly not all) of the Yelp type posts appearing
daily throughout social media. Many posters who seem to have an ax
to grind with a particular business or some other pet peeve to air,
and in many posts it feels quite personal. Jeff states, "Restaurant
reviewing requires accuracy, truth, and honesty. You are dealing
with people’s livelihoods. The reviewer should embody the standards
of real journalism and tell the truth as he or she sees it, always
be fair, and never have an agenda. In other words, even if I don’t
like the restaurateur, I should still rate the restaurant fairly."
And I think that's what many business owners and managers fear about
public consumer reviews, the lack of objectivity and the fear that
one person's opinion may have a direct effect on their business -
and their livelihood.
Will the professional restaurant review become a thing of the past?
Perhaps not, as "community journalism" seems to be gaining ground.
According to The Project For Excellence In Journalism, some new
sites like
stlbeacon.org and
voiceofsandiego.org, often launched with the help of foundation
grants, show promise, providing critical community news and
information.
Others are
mixing community building with professional standards of reporting.
Oakland Local, a community site founded by Web entrepreneur
Susan Mernit and funded through both a start-up grant and
advertising, is one example of such an experiment. It covers topics
like the environment, food, development and education for its local
community and in a recent month had 65,000 page views, 40,000 visits
and 25,000 unique visitors.
 And
some partnerships have begun between the old and the new media.
The Seattle Times is partnering with a number of local
neighborhood blogs including
westseattleblog.com to share links and collaborate on reporting.
Other legacy news organizations are looking to become aggregators of
community sites as a way to deliver more micro local news to their
users (and increase their value to users in the process).
Although I
did not find traditional restaurant reviews on these sites, both
oaklandlocal.com and
westseattleblog.com have a fairly extensive food section,
westseattleblog.com with a strong restaurant focus. Could reviews be
coming? And what will all this mean to current guides and rating
systems such as
Zagat or the
Michelin Guide? Where will they fit into the mix?
I'd like to
know how much impact each of these rating, guides or
reviews/reviewers has had on your business (whether food, wine or
hospitality related) and where you see the future of the reviewer or
critic. Please
take a moment to let me know!
-Margie
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