Fontleroy's: The buzz builds

I will give Fontleroy's credit ---> their Facebook page is easy to navigate, 'designed' properly, and the menu is in its real form.


This is far from the norm, however.

Here's an idea... you could live in mystery and actually go to the restaurant in person and try it based on great word of mouth rather than picking apart their lack of website, criticizing their Facebook page or any other such modern laziness. Just a thought.

[Robin Garr]

Here's an idea... you could live in mystery and actually go to the restaurant in person and try it based on great word of mouth rather than picking apart their lack of website, criticizing their Facebook page or any other such modern laziness. Just a thought.

Doesn't have to be either/or. Could be both/and.

It does strike me funny, though, that most of the commentors grew up and lived in an era where if you wanted to know what was on a restaurant's menu you kind of went out to dinner there. We do get spoiled in a hurry.

Here's an idea... you could live in mystery and actually go to the restaurant in person and try it based on great word of mouth rather than picking apart their lack of website, criticizing their Facebook page or any other such modern laziness. Just a thought.

Well actually Gary not everybody lives inside the "264 zone" or functions with no budget to speak of. When gas hit almost $4 a gallon driving for 20 or 30 minutes to any restaurant to find out "oh yeah, we're closed on Mondays" or that their menu options are a bit out of your budget just isn't MY idea of fun. Information on a useable web site helps alleviate those avoidable problems. Add kids into the mix and you have a whole new set of issues to deal with.

Simply put, not everybody shares your lifestyle. But you're right about one thing - working my 60 hour week with 2 toddlers under 3 years of age and me at 60+ years old, well, I guess I better get out of my "modern laziness".

We choose to use Facebook as our web presence. Our Web page was nearly impossible to maintain, change easily, and with about a million other things to do, very inconvenient. In fact we lost control of ownership of our Web site and cannot change it. It has very little impact on any of our sales. The lack of a website seems to be a major pet peeve of several persons on this forum and that is certainly your prerogative, but Facebook is quick, easy, and with its "Boosting capacity" option, for very little extra money, we can reach thousands of more people for a pittance. It ss the way we choose to go. To not go to a restaurant because they don't have a Good website is very strange. But to each his own. No matter how good the website is, I can assure you it is ultimately not a true indication of how good the food is. Your loss/our loss. I have a line out the door just about every day, and Facebook does just fine for me. Fontleroy's was advertized to be open Sunday for brunch at 10 am. Susi and I stopped by at 10 and they were not open, the tow people working, said that it would be at least twenty of thirty minutes before they opened. We moved on. Not good.

One last time...
I do not avoid a restaurant because they do not have a website. I may not choose a restaurant because I cannot find the information I need in order to made an educated decision about a restaurant. It has nothing to do with food quality or buzz. But you know there is usually more than one restaurant with a good burger or fantastic desserts so other things must be taken into consideration. Things like location, hours of operation, days of operation, what $$ bracket its in and if specific dietary options will be available to me, can you handle large parties, do you take reservations? Do you really think I am the lone person with these concerns? Yes, you might post your phone number to call and ask but the times I am free to make these inquisitive phone calls happen to be the very times that restaurants are their busiest and don't need to be bothered with calls like that.

And, as I said in an earlier post, Face Book is ok for this IF you can readily find that info without scrolling through dozens of other pages of not pertinent info. The problem isn't FaceBook, it's the poor use of it. If these needs of your diners aren't obvious to a restaurant owner/manager then I seriously doubt they have any idea how much business they are missing out on.

Carla, you are not alone, and I could not agree with you more...for many of the exact same reasons and situations that you pointed out. I understand that keeping a FB page updated is probably easier than maintaining a website. If that works for an establishment, more power to them. However, if a place cannot establish a website with very basic info and menu data, that certainly is a "ding" against them IMO. Might I still go there, sure, but I also may be more inclined to venture somewhere that offers this simply conveinece to its customers.

Gary Z, please don't confuse "modern laziness" with common sense due diligence.

DD

Thank you Derrick. I was beginning to think I was in the Twilight Zone.

Modern laziness is so much more convenient. I used to call & ask restaurants to fax menus 15+ years ago to see if I could afford it.

It does strike me funny, though, that most of the commentors grew up and lived in an era where if you wanted to know what was on a restaurant's menu you kind of went out to dinner there. We do get spoiled in a hurry.

While I agree with this you also have to think back about how much most with one out for dinner when we were growing up in younger and in most cases it was a lot less than we do now. Back then going out was very reserved for special occasion instead of a normal way of life like it is still. Also, restaurants have significantly changed. Back then restaurant stayed around forever and there weren't new ones opening and closing every few days so customers knew what to expect when I went to a restaurant as far as price and menu selections.

That is certainly all changed with today's lifestyles. People go out to eat much more often than they used to even on a day-to-day basis instead of special occasions. Restaurants open and close or change concept on the drop of a hat so unless you have some insight it's hard to determine what you're getting into many times. The restaurant it started this entire thread is a good example. Based on what was in that facility previously and the looks of the building from the outside when driving by recently I would expect the restaurant and have more of a diner type menu and prices yet we all know this is the case! Yes, we do demand more information because we know it's easy for a diner, or any other business for that matter, to provide the information to us. We don't have to guess nor do we want to in many cases.

Color me a rude youngster, but who cares what kind of site you find the info on, as long as it's accurate and clear?

When I'm interested in a new restaurant, I don't go blindly pecking in likely URLs like www.fernandosnewrestaurant.com, I go to Google and search for "Fernando's New Restaurant." Up pop the results, and (disregarding Yelp et al) I couldn't care less whether the top result is a standalone web site or a Facebook page.

I definitely have a bit of an online menu-porn issue. I can spend too long poring over menu details and engaging in unnecessary ogling. "What's on those scallops? Tarragon and wha....? Ohhh, that sounds sooo goood." I agree that Facebook can be fine, but I don't find menus easy to locate on many sites on that forum. Still, I've never had an account, so maybe I just don't know my way around it.

If I'm wandering in a new city and hit a touristy area with lots of restaurants, I prefer to look at a few menus in the window or counters before deciding where to eat. If I can't find a menu at a place, I might not try that spot. Same thing in town. If I want to try a new restaurant among three and I can easily find two menus online (also skipping yelp and the like), those places have a better shot at my business. Stick it in the window/a window, nothing to hide. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Color me a rude youngster, but who cares what kind of site you find the info on, as long as it's accurate and clear?

When I'm interested in a new restaurant, I don't go blindly pecking in likely URLs like http://www.fernandosnewrestaurant.com, I go to Google and search for "Fernando's New Restaurant." Up pop the results, and (disregarding Yelp et al) I couldn't care less whether the top result is a standalone web site or a Facebook page.

I share the same approach.

Putting together a simple website using Wix is so easy and free, there's literally no excuse.
It took me a little over an hour to put this one for the On Tapp Dairy.
http://www.ontappdairy.com

I went to look at it, and got a blank page.

Two different computers running Chrome: blank page

Tablet (Android): nice web page

??????

I bet you can see the website if you view it natively on Wix:
http://ontappdairy.wix.com/ontappdairy

I registered the domain "ontappdairy.com" for $5/yr. The "http://ontappdairy.wix.com/ontappdairy" is the free site you create. For $5 a month Wix will let you connect your domain to your free site.
The reason the site may not show for some browsers is that I used the free "redirect" service of the company where I registered the domain. This means that when you request the site in your browser, the request goes to the domain registrar's server that then feeds you the page from the free Wix page. There's probably a setting in some browsers that prevents redirects.

It could be easily argued that I'm cheating Wix out of $5/month... I plead guilty. I did the Tapp's site for them for free (OK, they gave me a chicken that I didn't ask for). I feel no guilt because the Tapp site is primarily simple info and not selling anything off the site and the ads for Wix are still displayed on the site. There's no "contract" stating that redirects are prohibited and there are a few drawbacks such as the demonstrated redirect issue and the fact that there's no unique URL for each page in the site.

I bet you can see the website if you view it natively on Wix:
http://ontappdairy.wix.com/ontappdairy

.

You are right . . . that works!