 e at Taste Dining & Travel have asked a few area restaurant reviewers about their trade and how they go about their job of critiquing a restaurant. It is strange that you never read a review about a hair salon, banking service, real estate or car dealer and their business is just as important. Yes, we all love food around here and love to comment on the best and worst places to eat. Makes for good conversation wouldn't you say?
We contacted all the local reviewers yet some chose not to respond including the Weekly Planet, SRQ Magazine, the Sarasota Herald Tribune, while the Bradenton Herald features editor said that since they use correspondents instead of staff members, he'd rather not participate. No reply from Florida Trend food guru Robert Tolf who crowns Florida restaurants with his “Golden Spoon" awards yearly. Did any of you not want to reveal your true selves?
Thanks to those who did respond to our questionnaire and here are their responses. No one wanted to have their picture printed in order to remain anonymous (and safe from disgruntled restaurateurs).
1. What is your food/wine background and how long have you been reviewing restaurants?
I have been reviewing restaurants since 1987. Cooking is my hobby, and I took cooking lessons under French chef George Pastor, in Tampa.
2. What is your criteria for choosing a particular restaurant for review?
Timeless. Is it new? Variety or diversity. Does it offer something unique? Readership interest. What would make this restaurant of interest to people?
3. Is there a certain "grace period" (especially with new restaurants) before choosing a review?
It varies, but usually a month or two. Restaurants need time to oil the gears.
4. Does your publication pay for the meals you use for review?
Yes, definitely, including the tip.
5. Do you dine anonymously?
Yes. That is essential.
| "Reviewers must constantly be aware of the power of their profession... Good reporting, and a dose of compassion, are mandatory." |
6. What is the most unusual restaurant you have reviewed? Names are not necessary.
A Tampa restaurant with only two customers myself and a companion in which the rack of lamb came out ablaze in sparklers and the owner insisted in holding our hands while his wife played religious hymns on an electric organ. An interesting night.
7. Do you notice any changes or trends in the restaurants you have been reviewing? Better/worse?
There are many bad restaurants that have no business being open, but I also am seeing a great variety of fine restaurants emphasizing indigenous ingredients combine with care and creativity. I also am seeing increases in prices that are excluding the lower middle class.
8. Any other comments on your profession?
Reviewers must constantly be aware of the power of their profession. Unlike movie critics, who write about an industry with no local ties, restaurant reviewers directly affect the lives and careers of people in their community. Good reporting, and a dose of compassion, are mandatory.
You could write a book on the subject, as every reviewer has his or her own way of doing things. I recently spent two weeks at a critics fellowship in New York, and talking to various critics from around the country only reinforced just how varied the profession is.
1. What is your food/wine background and how long have you been reviewing restaurants?
I've written for SARASOTA Magazine and Gulfshore Life for the past four years. In the 70s I was the first Cuisine Inquisitor for the Herald-Tribune. I was strictly anonymous in that job. I've written food stories and features routinely over the past 30 years for both newspapers and magazines.
2. What is your criteria for choosing a particular restaurant for review?
I write in two resort areas (Naples and Sarasota) so I choose restaurants for seasonal visitors as well as for year round residents. I balance the review schedule between new restaurants and those that have been on the scene for some years. Also, we do an Ask Marsha column, a chef profile (with recipe) and food shorts which gives me a chance to do mini-reviews of budget or off-beat places readers should know about.
3. Is there a certain "grace period" (especially with new restaurants) before choosing a review?
I wish there were more of a grace period, such as three months, but since my deadline is three months in advance of publication, I'm often reviewing restaurants three weeks after they've opened. A daily or weekly newspaper has the luxury of waiting a bit, a monthly magazine doesn't. Also, if you wait too long in this town a restaurant comes and goes. I barely got Carpe Diem in print before the place closed.
4. Does your publication pay for the meals you use for review?
Both SARASOTA Magazine and Gulfshore Life pay for two people to eat at the restaurant under consideration. Our policy is to publish reviews only of restaurants, markets, take-out places, etc., that we feel confident sending our readers to. If a restaurant is awful, we take a pass on printing a review of it. This happens regularly. When readers see one of our reviews in print in our magazines, they should feel fairly confident in patronizing those places.
"If a restaurant is awful, we take a pass on printing a review of it. This happens regularly."
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5. Do you dine anonymously?
I use my own name in making a reservation. Very rarely does anyone at a restaurant recognize the name. I never tell a restaurant we are coming in to review them. But, in writing the review after the restaurant visit, I will often phone the manager or owner with questions. I always like to include a bit of information about the history of the place, who owns it, a brief biography of the chef if he or she is outstanding.
6. What is the most unusual restaurant you have reviewed?
Names are not necessary.
No comment.
7. Do you notice any changes or trends in the restaurants you have been reviewing? Better/worse?
Most restaurants don't use a teaspoon in the table setting anymore. Silverware, plates, glasses are bigger, wine glasses especially. Service in general seems less efficient and less gracious. Servers are too casual and chatty. Bathrooms in expensive restaurants are more beautiful than ever, real design statements. American menus explain too much, some practically print the entire list of ingredients. There's no imagination in naming dishes. We've become too literal. The trend of offering too many wines by the glass means that too many bottles get opened and stay open for too long to the disadvantage of the next patron who orders it. Half carafes would be a better idea. Diners in this part of Florida are more food savvy than they were a decade ago. Chalk it up to world travel, the food network, bigger and better home kitchens, best-selling diet and nutrition books, farmers' markets, etc.
8. Any other comments on your profession?
No comment.
1. What is your food/wine background and how long have you been reviewing restaurants?
I actually have no professional background in food and wine, except the fact that I enjoy both. I was given the opportunity to do a restaurant review when the regular critic was on vacation, and I having been doing it for the past four years since that first time. Reviewing restaurants is my second job. I am a professional ballet dancer with the Sarasota Ballet of Florida, and most of my background is ballet training.
2. What is your criteria for choosing a particular restaurant for review?
It depends. Sometimes I am told by my editor where to go. Other times I hear from people where the new hot spot is or where they recently enjoyed a meal. Sometimes I even get to choose the place. I try not re-visiting a restaurant within a three year period which is pretty easy in our area because there are so many restaurants and a lot of new places popping up all the time. There are no real specific criteria besides just being a restaurant.
3. Is there a certain "grace period" (especially with new restaurants) before choosing a review?
At the Longboat Observer, we like to wait at least a month or two before reviewing a new restaurant to make sure it is up on its feet, and settled into its groove.
"Most of the time, especially here in Sarasota, I tend to go over budget. Sometimes you just can’t help having an extra glass of wine or a decadent dessert!"
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4. Does your publication pay for the meals you use for review?
The Longboat Observer pays up to a certain amount for the meal used in the review. Most of the time, especially here in Sarasota, I tend to go over budget. Sometimes you just can't help having an extra glass of wine or a decadent dessert!
5. Do you dine anonymously?
I dine anonymously, and don't call the restaurant I am reviewing beforehand to warn them that I am coming. I like to go as if I am a normal customer, and have that same experience with no special treatment. Also, in my restaurant reviews I keep my companion's identity anonymous except when I am doing my “Kate's Companion Dining Out" where I include information on the companion I am dining out with.
6. What is the most unusual restaurant you have reviewed? Names are not necessary.
Recently I reviewed a restaurant that serves all organic fare, and that was different. I have to say though that the South African cuisine at Maximo's on Siesta Key is very unusual compared to the common cuisines you usually get like Italian, French, Fusion, or Floribbean. I also think the Peruvian cuisine at Selva Grill is very unique.
7. Do you notice any changes or trends in the restaurants you have been reviewing? Better/worse?
I have to say that the restaurants are getting better. Our area has always had its gems like Beach Bistro, Euphemia Haye, Pattigeorge's, The Colony, Bijou Cafe, The Vernona, Fred's and Michael's on East to name a few. Now more and more creative restaurants with very talented chefs are popping up all around like The Mattison's chain, Cru downtown and The Table and on Hillview and a lot more are keeping up the standards. I also think that compared to other areas in Florida, Sarasota has an eclectic choice of restaurants, and most of them have stand-out service.
8. Any other comments on your profession?
I love being a restaurant reviewer in our area and that is due to the fact of all these wonderful restaurants. Thanks for all the great food! Keep it up!
We work a little differently at the Pelican. I write what are basically feature stories about new restaurants (and I do updates on our regular advertisers every year or so). I schedule interviews with owners/managers, and talk to them about their establishment, background, menu, chef, philosophy, etc. I do not eat at each restaurant, although I might sample something if it is offered. The reason for this approach is that I do not believe a reviewer should accept free food, and we don't have the resources to bankroll what should be a minimum of two visits to an establishment before a fair review can be done. If I happen to have eaten there before, I might comment on something that was particularly good; a homemade Hollandaise, or an interesting wine list, but this is rare. I would be qualified to review in the traditional manner. I grew up in the restaurant business, and my family owned three Italian-Continental restaurants. My standard line about the business is that I thought the babysitter was my mother until I was 35.
1. What is your food/wine background and how long have you been reviewing restaurants?
20-plus years of food writing. Living in France, Italy, London, Ireland, Greece. Working the vendage (grape harvest) in Southwest France when young and foolish (still have scars on my forefingers)
2. What is your criteria for choosing a particular restaurant for review?
New restaurants in our readership area. Updates on some established restaurants.
3. Is there a certain "grace period" (especially with new restaurants) before choosing a review?
No.
"Sarasota seems to be awash with overpriced mediocre restaurants." |
4. Does your publication pay for the meals you use for review? Do not dine.
5. Do you dine anonymously?
Do not dine.
6. What is the most unusual restaurant you have reviewed?
Names are not necessary.
A strange and venerable establishment in Galway, Ireland called Nora Cruibeens. Cruibeens are pigs feet. Nora kept the door locked and only let you in if she liked the look of you. The two dishes were cruibeens hot and cruibeens cold. And bottles of stout (perhaps her true appeal since pubs then closed at 10 or 11). A huge vat of cruibeens bubbled on a peat-fired Aga, and an assortment of toothless hags presented oily plates to customers sitting at stained wooden tables while several mangy resident cats meowed for tidbits. A companion of mine swore he had been present when one of the cats fell into the vat, and was scooped out by Nora, shaken off and lived another 8 lives.
7. Do you notice any changes or trends in the restaurants you have been reviewing? Better/worse?
Sarasota seems to be awash with overpriced mediocre restaurants.
8. Any other comments on your profession?
None.
1. What is your food/wine background and how long have you been reviewing restaurants?
I have been a reporter all my working life covering beats from cops to politics. I have specialized in food and wine criticism for more than 20 years in Florida and Louisiana. I have not had any long-term formal food training but I grew up in a family that valued good food and friends at the table. I have also cooked in a curry shop, tossed pizzas by hand, worked a short order grill and washed dishes in a hospital kitchen.
2. What is your criteria for choosing a particular restaurant for review?
I am a journalist and work for a newspaper so news value and utility to the reader comes first. A restaurant can become news if it's brand new and everyone is talking about it or if it changes, ownership, chefs or menus. In terms of news that's important to the reader I rank them this way: Restaurants that are good and affordable are the most useful to the reader, second comes expensive restaurants to stay away from, third is restaurants that are good and expensive that readers might just enjoy vicariously. The fourth group, cheap and bad are irrelevant.
3. Is there a certain "grace period" (especially with new restaurants) before choosing a review?
The “grace period" used to be six months, but at the pace of the economy and information today, readers, diners and critics are going to make judgements much earlier. If it's a small operation just getting started it's wrong to be too strict at the very first. You just want to tell readers there's a new place worth trying and watching. But if a place is charging full price (and a top dollar one) and drawing a full house, it ought to be in form from the beginning and the grace period will be much shorter.
4. Does your publication pay for the meals you use for review?
The St. Petersburg Times pays for all meals and we go at least twice. It's the only way to do it.
"In terms of news that's important to the reader I rank them this way: Restaurants that are good and affordable are the most useful to the reader, second comes expensive restaurants to stay away from, third is restaurants that are good and expensive that readers might just enjoy vicariously. The fourth group, cheap and bad are irrelevant." |
5. Do you dine anonymously?
It's not always easy to be anonymous but I still get bad service in some pricey restaurants. If that's a special privilege I shudder what happens to other people. I always dine unannounced.
6. What is the most unusual restaurant you have reviewed?
Names are not necessary.
Most unusual? I reviewed my memory of mom's Thanksgiving dinner one year. Loved it all except the creamed onions but she'd known that for a long time.
7. Do you notice any changes or trends in the restaurants you have been reviewing? Better/worse?
Despite my crack about service before, waitstaffs are becoming much more professional. We have better bread but tomatoes are still terrible. Wine by the glass prices are still too high. Sadly the momentum is still withchain restaurants which continue to move into higher price brackets with big decor budgets, smart graphics and surprisingly improved food. Some chefs are moving to smaller less expensive formats like bakeries and small plate bars; that's a good thing. Most important is that we continue to see new Americans open up ethnic restaurants from all over Asia Latin America and the Caribbean. That's often the best and freshest food around. I used to tell restaurant owners to treat all diners as critics because their word of mouth was a powerful medium that told of good and bad.
8. Any other comments on your profession?
None
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