by Jason G » Fri May 22, 2015 2:53 pm
I guess my thing is, I have never in my life heard anyone say "I'm going to Joe's for the food." I suppose if you are a restaurant you are fair game for review, but there are so many restaurants in this city, why choose this one to bash? Its not going to help or hurt them either way because 95% of their business is probably regular customers who won't even read or care about the review and the rest of the city never intended to stop in for a meal anyway. I mean its not like anyone is going there as a food destination or thought it was some hidden gem gastro-pub. If i was ever going to eat at Joes, which i never have although I have been there to drink multiple times, I would have low expectations.
Joes strikes me more as a neighborhood bar that also serves some food in case you need to soak up some of the alcohol while you're there. Its basically just a dive. People like dives and you can be a very successful dive serving cheap drinks and bad food because thats not why people are going there. Some dives DO have pretty good food, like the Granville, but I don't think its a requirement for success. People are there for the booze and the company.
Of course the reviewer did not like it because frankly, she doesn't seem like the type of person any patron of Joes Older than Dirt would want to hang out with. Just a pointless review in my opinion. I can see slamming a place if they are presenting themselves as something and not living up to expectations, but why go to a hole in the wall and then write "this place was a hole in the wall."