I take a lot of heat for my harsh reviews in general but especially reviews I write of new restaurants which have just opened. People seem to feel that restaurants need a chance to grow before anyone worth their salt writes them up and publishes it to the public (for the record: I am not worth my salt and I don’t feel that I fall anywhere even close to a newspaper or magazine’s reviewer(s)). But as many of you know, I disagree with that line of thinking completely.
When I walk into a new restaurant I am not at all concerned with their service or ambiance. Those are two things which can be changed over time. What I am concerned with is the quality of the food and the ingredients used in that food. It’s my opinion that those two things will never get better over time due to many reasons but mainly economic ones. Why are these two things the most important?
1. First impressions on a restaurant’s “Net Promoters”
“Net Promoters” are the people who are most likely to recommend a restaurant to others. It’s my opinion that people who take the time to realize that a new restaurant is opening and visit it in the first few weeks that it’s open are likely knowledgeable about their community, interested in food, and are the people that their friends go to when they want a recommendation of where to eat.
2. Developing a loyal following
Once a new restaurant has impressed the “Net Promoters” and they have done their duty to spread the word of a new restaurant, the quality ingredients and food need to remain in order to keep their friends and friends of friends happy. These people will probably become a restaurant’s core group. The people who come back time and time again because of the food. I don’t know anyone who eats crappy food at a restaurant that looks nice and I certainly don’t know many people (except single men who need a date) that would eat crappy food at a restaurant just because the servers are nice.
Obviously it is my opinion that the rest of what needs to be done in a restaurant can be learned over time (service, ambiance, etc) but the food has to start out great from day zero. What’s your opinion on all of this? Do you think a restaurant can start out serving shitty food, using shitty ingredients and still be successful in the long term–especially in an economy like we have these days? Are people really willing to spend their hard earned money on terrible food time and time again when there are other standby options available that have already been doing it “right” for a long time? What are your most important things that you look for in a new restaurant? How much time is proper to give a restaurant before you say, “eh, it sucks,” to your friends?
Whatever you have to say about this one, I’d love to hear it. So go ahead and comment on below and let’s hear it. If anything, maybe some poor bastard crazy enough to be opening a restaurant soon will stumble across it and learn a thing or two about the people who are most likely going to be walking through their doors as soon as they open ;-)
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November 16th, 2009 at 10:16 am
New Restaurants: What’s Most Important to You? http://tinyurl.com/yf2dme9
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
November 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am
What do you look for in a new restaurant? RT @SouthMetroNews: New Restaurants: What’s Most Important to You? http://tinyurl.com/yf2dme9
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
November 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am
A clear vision.
Example of piss-poor vision: What is Molly Cool’s? A semi-upscale place that their price point would imply? A seafood shack that their utensils/decor would imply? A modern “vibe”-driven place that their bar area and building would imply? A place dedicated to fresh, high-quality seafood that their lipservice claims?
There is no apparent vision or execution of a concept at Molly Cool’s.
Good Example: Eddie Cheng/Wong’s/Golden Wok/whatever else the million Chinese-American places are. You know exactly what these places are: The Walgreens/CVS/Target/Walmart of the restaurant world. You have a five-mile distance without one? Boom. One opens in the corner strip mall almost exactly halfway between two other carbon copies, and it’s busy all the time.
For good or bad, you know exactly what you’re getting on every level. They achieve a precise purpose with a workable business model.
Beyond that, Bill, I agree with you — there is something you can judge with a degree of confidence from the moment a place opens. Do they give a shit? This is evident in the quality of the cooking and the ingredients. Ronin clearly cared about their product from Day 1.
You can also tell if they have a clue. Baldy’s BBQ may use the world’s best dry rubs and take the greatest care in smoking their meat in-house, but when you slice it and cram it into a wet steam tray holding tank until someone orders it, you’re ruining the product. This is a maneuver that immediately shouts “we don’t even understand the very most basic tenet of BBQ — proper care of the meat”.
Baldy’s has redeeming qualities and I’m not 100% solid in my judgment based on my one visit, but I have serious fundamental apprehension based on that.
99.999% of places claiming to be “Chicago eatery”, “New York Style”, etc. are opened by people who have rarely, if ever, even traveled to Chicago or New York, much less have any culinary knowledge or knowledge of what exactly makes Chicago or New York, both food and not food, special.
I don’t think the food at Giuseppe’s is out-of-this-world, but I root for them because they obviously care a great deal and you could see the almost instant effort they made to improve their cooking and menu options from the start. They are executing on a clear concept (approachable, family-friendly, neighborhood Italian-inspired restaurant), they are warm and friendly and you can tell they work hard.
Sometimes it’s just a “I know it when I see it” thing and it can’t easily be captured in specifics.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I rely on you & Kathie Jenkins to guide me in the right direction. We rarely eat out. When we do eat out we get take-out form Satay in AV. Satay makes has things on the menu that I simply cannot replicate at home. We are also planning on trying Ronin becasue we love sushi. The reason we don’t eat out is the basis for your argument. I can make most of it better at home myself. Yes it’s work and clean-up, but I would rather not waste our hard earned money eating crap and having to pay for it. I can buy several weeks worth of groceries on what we would pay to eat at Molly Cools, and to me it just isn’t worth it. Eating out was the first thing we cut when we started saving more money.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I would say ingredients are the start. So Bill is right on with that. I also agree with MSPD on knowing what your vision or niche is… my guess is BD Mongolian Grill from the reviews you gave hits on both ingredients and the niche of “exotic for minnesota” food that is approachable and most of all appeals to the interest in the most food for the buck at the same time.
I think you can cue off the little things, are the waitstaff competent and prepared? While this can be addressed, if the management/owners are not training them in a standard that is expected given the restaurant’s niche they wont succeed. Can you wait on a table without being over attentive, delivering food at a breakneck pace and give the impression that you are just wanting to “turn the table”? I ate at the Cheeky Monkey Deli on Selby in ST Paul on Saturday night, casual chic, basic food , not a huge menu and a combo of counter and table service… nicely done. We also often have a burger at the Buffalo Tap in Savage … I know exactly what i am getting there, nothing special, but nothing that is a disaster, they are always busy and the wait staff has been there a while and knows what they are selling and how to do it.
I havent eaten at Ronin or Giuseppe’s yet. I will apologize on the Ronin thing, but your emails about them potentially going out of business scared me, it led me to fear corners being cut due to costs, and raw fish and cutting corners do not add up to a good result. Still i continue to hear your good comments.
Giuseppe’s… i will go , just havent found the time. I am Italian and come from a family that was very food centric, also i have travelled to Italy many times so i am very critical when it comes to this cuisine. Still I have always wanted to find a nonpretentious Italian restaurant that had warmth and true caring for its food, especially at the humble family cucina level… which is what Giuseppes sounds like.
I have to admit that one of the best experiences i ever had was at Michelangelo’s restaurant in Hopkins. This is a very Giuseppe’s type place. there were four of us, it is family owned and the evening flowed into dishes coming from the kitchen that we didnt order as a surprise, wine flowed, neighboring tables became friends and at 10:30 after the doors were locked we were sipping sambuca , dancing, singing and eating dessert with the owners family , and guests from a few other tables.
November 16th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Let me be clear about Ronin. While I have ordered sushi there, I do not consider it their cornerstone even though their name implies it. I go there for the excellent Thai dishes.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
What I look for is the experience as Mulch covered as well above. I get so tired of the same old type of restaurants opening over and over with the same food and a different name. There are plenty of restaurant concepts that aren’t in the twin cities and I would love to see someone take a shot and not only come up with a great concept , but make it affordable and fun. If there is anyone out there looking to open a restaurant, how about asking the people what they want and you might just find the answer.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
A restaurant should not open until it has a well developed menu with a staff that is very familiar with the menu and knows how to prepare everything on it correctly. The food at a restaurant is similar to a play at the theater. The public does not pay for tickets to come watch you rehearse the show. They come expecting an actual ironed out performance. If you want to see how the show plays, you can invite friends, and family who will give you good honest feedback to a dress rehearsal before you open to the public. If a restautant is open to the public and is taking money for the food it prepares, there is absolutely NO excuse for poor quality food. I can be understanding if the service is a little bit slow, but that too should be at least at an “adequate” level before the restaurant opens to the paying general public. I understand the need to get money coming in to a new business, but you only get one chance to make a first impression, and crappy food and service on opening is not the impression you wanrt to leave people with.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Mulch, I agree with MSPD about Giuseppe’s – it isn’t great, but you have to cheer them on. You won’t get Italian food there – you’ll get Italian-American food there, i.e. sweet, thick red sauce and spongy white bread. It is fun, but it isn’t exactly “gourmet”. I like that it is owned by people, not faceless chemical corporations.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
sandy, sometimes at places like giuseppe’s if the owner and his kitchen get to know you, and they have the right ingredients, then you tell them to make you something off the menu that fits with simple Italian food…
I try to support locally owned companies as well…
Last week i was in Fargo on business, sat at the bar at the Spitfire Grill, a locally owned place, they do the wood roasting and have their own smoker for ribs and brisket, i just had a sandwich and a beer, but it was satisfying. The bartender was just right, not obtrusive but gave me a good recommendation and the food was good, not the same menu you see everywhere else.
ON monday night due to convenience i took two customers to Granite City location there. I didnt expect much, and I didnt get much. My salad came, and i think i had only finished one third of it when the entrees arrived.
The server was constantly at our table…
Bill … noted on the Thai food. at Ronin.. how does it compare to Spice in Savage and the Thai place over by the old Applewood Grill?
November 16th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I believe a special table in Hell has a “Reserved” sign on it for the person who invented the idea of a “soft opening.” His or her honored guests are the restaurant owners/operators who have used the phrase as an excuse for poor food, poor service, or both. If you are open to the public, and taking their money in exchange for your food, you are “open.” No qualifier should be necessary.
November 16th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Some may disagree but I think that a great place to find restaurants that are doing it right is on the Food Network TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives (which is produced locally).
The places featured on that show are the type of joints where the owner is usually on site, and perhaps serving you or cooking your food. They make their food from scratch and many use ingredients that are local to them. Plus, they usually have a specialty, something that they are known for. It may a type of food, or just a specific dish, but they all have something special that no one else has.
When we went to the Parkway Grille, it took about 15 seconds of looking at the menu to realize they they don’t have a specialty and they don’t have anything unique. Places like that need to find something that they can do better than anyone else and make it their focus. For example, when I think of burgers, I think of places like King’s in Miesville because that is what they do best.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Bill, totally agree with you that if the food isn’t up to snuff on day 1, it probably will never be. I usually know after a look at the menu and a few bites of my meal if I’ll be coming back or not.
I’ve seen a few reviews on other sites where they knocked the service hard within the first week or two of opening. Burger Jones comes to mind – they had a few service issues in the early going and got knocked pretty hard for it by a few local blogs. I didn’t think it was really warranted. I went there a month or two after opening and the service was just fine.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am
The single most important thing to me is to see that they care.
If I have company over to my house and my wife or I make food for them, I feel bad if I serve something that is not good. Now, we often try new things (That Guiness Beef Stew Recipe) and we will tell people its a new dish, no promises. But we do commit to using good ingredients and trying to cook with some level of skill. Serving things when they are fresh/warm/etc.
If I visit a restaraunt and they dont show the same level of care that I use at my own home, its probably not a place I will visit again. The places we frequent are all places that seem to care about providing a quality meal to the people who choose to patronize thier business.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Chad, let me know how that Guinness stew recipe comes out. It’s next on my crockpot list.
November 17th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
We made it on Saturday. I thought it was very good. My wife liked it on Saturday and disliked it on Sunday.
I loved the use of items we dont normally cook with, although in the recipe that actually blended in well and did not have distinctive flavors. My wifes main complaint, and I guess I understand, was that it was a little bit bland. There was not much bite to it. Personally I found it very hearty, enjoyed the background flavor from the guiness, and loved the use of the “new” ingredients. I did season with some salt and pepper on the table, which I dont normally do, but it was also the first time we made it and we could work on that.
We have a recipe for a Samuel Adams Beef Stew as well, that we made a few times last year. I thought this one was better, but its hard to compare as we have not had the other since last winter. Might have to have a crock pot beef stew challenge I guess.
Sorry for the unorganized feedback. All in all, I liked it, she didnt. Hopefully we have it again though.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
this is the guinness beef stew i make. i’ll give it a 4.5 forks out of 5!!
https://www.byerlys.com/Recipes/Recipes/B/Beef-and-Guinness-Stew.aspx
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