There’s a myriad of things I take issue with in Steve Dolinsky’s latest article on HuffPost Chicago*, but I’m going to limit my retort to one sentence in particular:
"I try to stay away from the arms race in food coverage currently being waged by Time Out, Metromix and a host of other bloggers, all of whom seem to be descending upon restaurants as soon as they open."
I said I was going to limit my retort, right? Right. So that means I’m not going to comment on the fact that Dolinsky apparently tries so hard to stay out of this "arms race" that the rest of his article describes eating at Urban Belly on its opening day. Really, what else could I say? That kind of hypocrisy speaks so well for itself.
But my comrades and I are particularly passionate about the issue that his insult brings up, so I want to make it very clear to any readers who may have swallowed the arrow he shot at us: The idea that Time Out visits restaurants as soon as they open is unequivocally false.
One merely needs to open our pages to understand this. In this week’s issue, Eat Out Editor Heather Shouse reviews Piccolo Sogno, which soft-opened in the middle of July (around the 19th or so) and opened fully a few days later. The review appears a full month after the restaurant opened, which, given our printing schedule, means that Heather’s visits to the restaurant occurred around its third week of operation. (In an effort to give our readers the most up-to-date information possible, we run short "Just Opened" articles as close to a restaurant’s opening date as we can (for example, our own coverage of Urban Belly in this week’s issue). These are purely informational, are reported on without visiting the restaurant, and do not constitute a review.)
Dolinsky is smart to touch on this issue—in fact, in the coming weeks we’ll be publishing a report that touches on it as well. But for a journalist with so many years of experience, his reporting is frighteningly shoddy. So before he slings another arrow, let me assure the public that not only do we give a restaurant adequate time to get off its feet, we also pay for our own meals and visit all restaurants anonymously. That last point precludes us from handing out signed headshots to every restaurant we visit, but hey, that’s the price of credibility.
* Editor’s note: It’s "ChuffPo!" Come on, people, at this rate, it’s never going to catch on!
First of all, Steve Dolinsky is not a restaurant reviewer and if you ever speak with the man or hear anything he has to say he will announce that right away. Second of all, 3 weeks is sometimes not adequate time for a restaurant to get off the ground and not necessarily the best representation of the restaurant but instead a way for Time Out to try and get the scoop and yet again get the chance to be snarky and rude and think they are better than every other publication in this city.
Getting the first review does not make you a credible source by any means Time Out and just because you do happen to pay for your own meals does not make you a good reviewer either.
If a restaurant is not putting their best foot forward after 3-4 weeks, there’s a huge problem. How much time is a restaurant (or any business for that matter) supposed to be allowed before they are expected to satisfy their customers? 6 months? A year? Oops, they’ll be closed by then.
its getting ugly around here. Isnt integrity the name of the game? Is going too early too a restaurant worth ruining people lives and families with a bad review?