Excoriating (Yet Hilarious)Restaurant Review

I know this isn't a forum about NY, but I thought you all might get a kick out of this. I honestly don't remember a worse review in the Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dinin ... .html?_r=0

Sooooo..."No stars for you!!!"

[Robin Garr]

I know this isn't a forum about NY, but I thought you all might get a kick out of this. I honestly don't remember a worse review in the Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dinin ... .html?_r=0

Hilarious! And, I'm guessing, right on target.

You don't suppose Fieri's ego just sort of overcame him, do you? What a disaster. But, it fits right into the Times Square landscape, I suppose.

Gary, I am dying, literally falling out of my chair laughing. The final stab, "The well-meaning staff seems to realize that this is not a real restaurant" is just unreal.

Honestly, I've never seen the Times review any of the tourist traps in Times Square- the word on the street must have been too alluring to miss such an opprotunity.
And the sad thing is that even a bad review will bring people in in droves. Guy, like many before, will be laughing all the way to the bank.

You don't see that type of review in most of the Louisville metro papers.
Did this NYT reviewer once write for the U of L Cardinal by any chance?

[Robin Garr]

You don't see that type of review in most of the Louisville metro papers.
Did this NYT reviewer once write for the U of L Cardinal by any chance?

The sustained snark all the way through is unusual, and not something that I think any publication would do all the time. And I think most Louisville-area professional critics tend to err on the side of being kind, although I'd stop short of whitewashing a bad place.

Occasional slams aren't uncommon, though. I've done a few myself, as in the original outing of Taco Punk where I spoke of first wanting to tell the guy behind the counter what to do and later wanting to go behind the counter and help ...

I haven't seen much negativism in the CJ in recent years, although I used to do it (when warranted) in the Bingham era. It's a fact that the ad side of publications don't want to have to calm down angry advertisers. Ronnie D may recall the J. Gumbo's franchisee who threw the LEO news stand out of his downtown shop the day my negative review appeared.

I saw this amazing review earlier and had to go look at the menu http://guysamerican.com/menu/ for this place where I subsequently had an inordinate amount of eyebrow raises. It reminds me of a certain unnamed restaurant here in Louisville with an equally ridiculous, slightly less bombastically worded menu that probably deserves a review similar to the one posted in the NYT. I'll let you all guess which restaurant to which I'm referring.

You don't see that type of review in most of the Louisville metro papers.
Did this NYT reviewer once write for the U of L Cardinal by any chance?

The sustained snark all the way through is unusual, and not something that I think any publication would do all the time. And I think most Louisville-area professional critics tend to err on the side of being kind, although I'd stop short of whitewashing a bad place.

Occasional slams aren't uncommon, though. I've done a few myself, as in the original outing of Taco Punk where I spoke of first wanting to tell the guy behind the counter what to do and later wanting to go behind the counter and help ...

I haven't seen much negativism in the CJ in recent years, although I used to do it (when warranted) in the Bingham era. It's a fact that the ad side of publications don't want to have to calm down angry advertisers. Ronnie D may recall the J. Gumbo's franchisee who threw the LEO news stand out of his downtown shop the day my negative review appeared.

I don't remember J. Gumbos doing that but I do remember Cunninhams heaving the newspapers as well as the stand in which they sat into the middle of Fourth Street. And over a very mild comment that their fish sandwich wasn't what it used to be. Certainly mild by the Fieri review yardstick.

[Robin Garr]

I do remember Cunninhams heaving the newspapers as well as the stand in which they sat into the middle of Fourth Street.

I do believe the Brown Hotel did something similar, although more dignified (they called LEO and requested that the news stands be removed, never to return) after we dissected the not-so-valuable benefits of some kind of meal deal they were offering in the English Grill.

I've always appreciated LEO standing behind me and never asking me to pull back or withhold a stern opinion about an eatery, even when it drew incoming fire.

They (LEO) worked very hard to keep editorial content and advertiing separate. No gray areas were allowed. I was always proud of the paper for taking such a stringent position on that.

Gary, I am dying, literally falling out of my chair laughing. The final stab, "The well-meaning staff seems to realize that this is not a real restaurant" is just unreal.

Ditto!
Gary dear- thanks for the much needed laugh while traveling. I did however notice fellow travellers moving farther away from me when I started snorting and loudly cackling....
Deb

I do recall, because we soon bought that store back, restored the quality standards, and the LEO rack.

I've seen some bad rollouts in my career.

The worst was Rainforest Cafe, Animal Kingdom, Orlando.

I had already ran FOH training for Plant Hollywood (don't judge- I was young and the money was exceptional) We staffed 600 on the floor alone...

There were non-restaurant folk running the joint. If you begin your (x) speech with 'I have a doctorate in history,' you won't last long- promise.

We soft-opened. It was a nightmare. Not enough POS stations to fill the need. The servers had to wait in a queue to deliver food, etc, etc...

I, of all people, got 'coached' on the first night on the service I provided.

'NO, it took 45 minutes to get the food I spent 15 minutes in line to order.'

She wasn't hearing it, having never waited a table in her life.

I wasn't hearing it, because I'll never throw bad after good.

And that was that, this sounds like a very similar circumstance.

Seriously, where was management?