Lawrence.com

Posted by Tom King September 27, 2005 at 1:35 p.m.

Writing About Restaurants

A comment posted on [a recent Foodways][1] asked: "How can you review a restaurant that hasn't opened yet?" [Local Burger].Good question.The answer? I don't write reviews.A good reviewer acts as consumer advocate. The good restaurant reviewer has the knowledge and the experience to determine a fair and approximate value of a restaurant's product. Food + Service + Ambience = Product, for most restaurants.The ideal restaurant reviewer is both gastronome and scholar, with extensive knowledge of food properties and preparation methods, of culinary traditions, and of the history and processes of restauranting. Add a dash of eloquence and a quart of objectivity and you have a decent template for America's best modern food critics.It's impossible to efficiently discern, much less assess, the depth of a restaurant's menu, the skill of its kitchen, and the many nuances of service and atmosphere, on a single visit.Three visits is the bare minimum for a review, and then only for the most perspicacious of critics. It takes several visits before the average reviewer begins to develop a sense of a restaurant's mission, of the chef's motives, of the spirit of place.Lauren Chapin, food editor for the Kansas City Star, visited [Krause Dining][2] six times before she wrote the review. The Star picked up the checks.Rumor has it Ruth Reichl visited Ducasse in New York City eight times, at an average of $400 per visit. The Times paid the bills.That's one reason I don't write reviews.Here in our dank and homey lawrence.com headquarters, with its virile sod walls and pot-bellied stove, our meetings never get around to the topic nearest my heart: a restaurant budget. It's a pipe dream, I know--a dinky grass-roots publication, zine litter on the prairie winds. Most of the money for the next six months has already been spent on coal and paying down the Red Man tab at Round Corner. The last time I tiptoed around the restaurant budget, Phil [Cauthon, editor] looked me right in the eye and suggested a five-part review of candy bars. "It's what the people wanna know, man," he wheedled.I eat out on my own dime.Of even greater consequence to the would-be reviewer is the size of her or his community. Smaller communities generally don't take kindly to critics. Word travels quickly, inexplicably sharper-edged, and small town skins are thinner than those of humans toughened by the jostling of crowds.In a big city, the population often dilutes the impact of a review--due to odds and options, fewer people will see it. In a small town, the inverse is true: there are fewer information options on the street, and it's likely that more people will read the review. And through word of mouth, often the local population actually amplifies the review.In a small town, a bad review can be sufficiently amplified to affect economic hardship on the offending restaurant, hence hardship on the many businesses peripheral to the restaurant. It's a delicate balance, a food chain; restaurants deal with dozens of local businesses, from architects and printers to food and liquor purveyors, from linen services to electricians and plumbers, from tallow men and florists to newspapers and cab drivers--not to mention the restaurant's employees. Many birds might be harmed with one stone.To walk the line and yet continue to write about local restaurants, I honor a venerable, needle-pointed homily: If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it.The justice of that system is that the truly bad places are guilty by omission. The injustice is that so are the places I've yet to visit.I aim to convey impressions of restaurants; impressions based on enthusiasm and experience, and shaped by the gleanings of interviews and observation. I'll list dishes, I'll seek motives. I try to give the reader an idea of what a restaurant is up to, what it's about so far, and what it wants to be. Most independent restaurants have distinct characters.My opinions are expressed more often than not in terms of process, concept and spirit. I can define and honor a spirit, I can explain a process and I can dissect a dish. I can tell you something tasted delicious but I cannot pass judgment on poor quality. I won't throw stones, I'll avoid instigating ripples and I won't tell you not to go somewhere. No good will come of it.And even slight praise is encouragement."That's soft censorship!" raged a hairy intellectual after hearing my system."More like Utopian," an artist responded.I don't perceive deference to an established social etiquette, albeit one a shade wimpy, as a form of censorship; First: "When in Rome:" Second: Write around it.An important rule of the well-traveled road is Tact, and tact is the ticket to smooth navigation through societies. Welcome access to local kitchens is far more relevant to my form of restaurant writing than the lonely cubicle awaiting the arbiter of taste.I investigate, you evaluate. Your thoughtful comments are the review.Lagniappe - In the [Local Burger][1] article, I touted the value of the concept and ranted once again about America's tainted food production systems.To my mind, Local Burger is an important social experiment. The concept isn't unique; for the past few years, simply styled restaurants dedicated to responsible food production and preparation have rapidly taken hold on the east and west coasts.But Local Burger is a first for Lawrence and I very much believe in its spirit; I'm glad it's finally here. Hilary Brown [Local Burger owner] discussed her business plan with me a year ago, showed me a menu sketch, and we had an interview a few weeks before opening--that was the basis of the article.Now, nearly two weeks in, after an overwhelming start, Local Burger's systems are getting tighter and workers' nerves are loosening up. There are bugs to work out, certainly--portion sizes and the density of the burger buns are recurring topics. In a week or so, after she gets one night's good sleep, Brown will start to fine tune, the details will be attended to. At this point, though, it's still all about getting through the day.Most restaurants need about three months to really get rolling.In the big picture, Local Burger dramatically enriches the mix of downtown Lawrence's growing restaurant community. Furthermore, I hope it will serve to inform local restaurants and patrons alike that eating well is eating local. [1]: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/foodways/2005/sep/08/localburger/ [2]: http://www.lawrence.com/places/krause...