Restaurant Reviews and Liability

Most of you probably never visited my website prior to this review, so let me shed some light:

I started KitchenBanter in order to have an outlet for some of my longer, more ridiculous thoughts that wouldn't be read when scrolling through Facebook statuses. If you have read any of what I post, you know what the majority of it is- ridiculous topics. My first post was titled Shitting In Public. I post about Harambe, about driving on bardstown road, how to shop local. I post deeply self deprecating truths about my life, or about how allergy fakers are ruining it for people with actual allergies, as opposed to dietary preferences.

Since starting this site, I have been offered no less than 6 freelance gigs at different publications, be they local or national. I considered all of them. Some ended up being "hey this could be cool" and didn't pan out, others I just never got around to responding.

That being said, I realized that if people wanted to pay me to write, I could eventually make money on my own. Why spread my content thin? No reason.

I eventually brought on a tentative partner, though we haven't gotten around to doing the paperwork- and I'm not sure we will be doing so anytime soon.

We discussed the idea of restaurant review, but I didn't feel I could be objective. So, I put out a call for resumes and writing samples. We received them. A LOT of them. And we brought a guy in. I had not met him previously, though I have now. I thought his writing was witty, funny, and spoken with knowledge of food and restaurants.

When we brought Marcus in, I told him three things:

1. I won't censor you
2. I can't pay you
3. I'll protect you

I didn't realize number 3 was going to be as real as it has become. My website has modest readership, at best. Occasionally, 50 or 60 clicks. Sometimes, a few hundred. If one of us is particularly on our game, we hit the thousands. The low thousands.

This went WAY beyond anything I ever imagined. I don't have employees- this is a collective of writers, who do it for free. I don't make money. There is no ad revenue. I am currently sitting on no less than 8 Op-Ed pieces. Some people have asked that I let this whole thing die before I hit the publish button, and I'm respecting that. It's the same deal with everybody- write whatever you want. I'll edit it for format and spelling. I won't censor you. Your views don't reflect mine. My views don't reflect yours. If ever this becomes a thing I start making money on, I might contract you and pay you for future work, or however it works (i don't know. I'm not a writer. I'm a guy who makes pointless observations people sometimes agree with).

So, when this thing took off, I was pretty surprised. This isn't some big reputable site. This is a bunch of people making fart jokes and drawing stick figures. Literally, that's what it is.

But then I was accused of inventing a person to "slander" the "competition" of a restaurant "a few blocks" away. At first, i understood that response. When I tell you I debated publishing this review, trust me. I read it, and cringed the entire way through. It read like an attack to me. I immediately went to Joella's, ordered what he ordered, and had roughly the same experience, though I wouldn't be as loose with words about it. I still ate it- I eat Hamburger Helper and Digiorno at home, I assure you I'll eat mediocre food (that's just an opinion).

Was the review harsh? Yes. It was harsh as HELL. Would I echo those words if the post was mine? No.

But, I also agreed with some of the criticism, even if it was taken a bit further than I would have taken it. So, I hit publish. I don't regret it. If I could do it the same way, I'd do it again.

When I received the letter from Mr. Palombino's attorney, I simultaneously laughed and cursed. It was funny, but I was also pretty mad. So I made that video. The one where I told him to sue me, and called him a motherfucker. I do sort of regret that- not because I probably left him little choice but to actually sue me now, because I'm not worried about that. I'm pretty confident in my attorney. I regret it because it took this further than it needed to go, and it had already gone pretty far.

Now, I told Marcus I would protect him, and I will. I won't ask him to do anything other than write what he wants, and if it is his true opinion- I'll publish it. I have several other reviews from him now, and they're all fairly positive. I'm sure he will piss someone off again at some point.

Today, when the insider louisville article came out, this whole thing was brought up again. It's gone far enough, in my opinion. If Mr. Palombino would still like to sue me, that's of course his prerogative, this is America.

If he would like to turn this negative in to a positive, because it's become Griffin vs. Tony (even though, I will repeat for the people in the back, these are not my words), I will stand by my decision to do what I did, and I am offering to cook side by side with Mr. Palombino for charity. I think that is the ultimate win for everybody. I don't need, nor do I want, more publicity. There was a reason I didn't respond when Insider called.

I'm not going to play in to the feud any further. I have respect for Tony as a restaurateur, he's clearly very successful, and I'm sure that's for good reason. I don't know him personally, I couldn't pick him out of a crowd. I ordered a pizza from Boombozz on Saturday. I made sure to pay cash. I do not view Hot Chicken as my competition, as I literally will not even have chicken in my restaurant. I don't view Joella's as a competitor in any way.

If Mr. Palombino would like to settle this, for charity, I would be happy to- though, i freely admit I know nothing about hot chicken, and I'll most assuredly lose that battle.

But, if he still wants to sue me, that's totally his prerogative, and I won't lose sleep over it.

This is the last of what I'll say on this issue. As always, I love you all, even those of you who think I'm a shitbag. This is America, and in America, you are entitled to your opinion.

I wish you all the best.

Hey, gang! Griffin just posted a new video, and it's both a firm and a gracious response: If Tony P is willing, they drop the suit and duke it oug with a hot-chicken throwdown instead, charge admission, and give all the proceeds to charity. I've suggested APRON.

Thank you all for thinking of APRON- but I honestly don't think we can let our name be used in connection with anything this disruptive to the Independent Restaurant Community that we have served since 2011.
Tony and his restaurants, especially Joella's, have been supporters of APRON, and I have had nothing but respect and admiration for Griffin through his journey in Louisville kitchens, and I eagerly look forward to the opening of Mirin; but I feel strongly that our place is not in the middle of this contretemps.
I wish everyone involved all the best

Gary Fox
President
APRON Inc

I used to post here pretty regularly years ago, and have been lurking for months...

Yet, I'll break my silence for this.


I have worked with, lived with, shared happiness, pain, sorrow and laughter with Griffin.

If I can say anything about him as a person... he is the following: honest, genuine, one of the most giving people I have ever known, an incredible friend to those he loves, a loving and attentive father, a son who makes his parents proud; he is equally humble, driven, passionate, not malicious, well read, writes well, and perfectly comfortable with where he is at both professionally and personally.
He has both grown; as well as suffered - personally, professionally, and financially as a result of his passion for his craft and profession. He has also thrived, and as I see his barometer - will only continue to, as he grows and progresses on a daily basis. As any true cook hopes to.

He's not going anywhere, and refuses to be a case study in "the flame that burned twice as bright, but for only half as long". Nor will I. We share a lot of mutual respect each for each other both on personal and professional levels and have always pushed each other to be better in ways that were out of our natural thought processes.

For me - pushing him creatively, and in style and form. "Less is more, more is less.", Thought processeson the how's and whys of approach to creation of dishes.

From him - I learned to (at least attempt to) accept what I can't change. To make the most of every day and every situation life throws at you. I learned how to make ramen from scratch never having made anything other than Italian pastas before.We piled his research and testing for well over a year, applied my pastry and pasta knowledge about doughs, humidity, etc., and we were finally able to nail down a product that was entire (quite literally) foreign to us, and dialed it in.
Truth be told - my obsession (that in the end became greater than his) to perfect that ramen dough recipe saved my life and got me sober for 15 months.

He strives for perfection in as much as possible for the model at hand, and isn't afraid to say: "this is bullshit. We're not serving this".

We would close Rumplings for lunch if we got cleaned out of everything the night before because we wouldn't rush any of the broths that took hours to do properly. Between him and my brother Chip (who ran the kitchen on the day to day), there was zero acceptance for serving our guests sub par food because "we're supposed to be open".
Yes, it's likely considered a poor business model, but with 18 seats serving 300+ bowls of noodles a night on weekends... There were some limitations to our ambition and ability to produce to meet the demand. This was part of the undoing of Rumplings.
Zero compromise for mediocrity merely to fill seats. We did it right, or we didn't serve it. The restaurant simply had not enough work or storage space to meet our volume demands, nor the practical advantage to keep up with the fresh noodles made daily. As I am told, Mirin will be outsourcing noodles to remedy this quandary.

Yeah, it sucks for our guests to show up and the place is close for lunch because we got cleaned out the night before and have to recoup to prepare product we deem fit to be proud of. Or we closed early (by early I mean midnight), because of the same.

At the end of the day... You, as a diner: would you be more pissed off to show up hoping to eat and the restaurant is temporarily closed for a service or earlier than intended... Or would you rather they serve you bullshit, with a smile on their faces knowing damn well it's not as good as it could be? Knowing they served you bullshit and took your hard earned money?

The small team we had there couldn't accept that. We couldn't do that to our customers. Too much pride, (probably at the time) too much ego. We tried limping in underprepared a few times. People could tell. It wasn't worth it. Unless they were our regulars; they wouldn't be back. Our regulars lamented because they had had better before from us, but just thought we maybe had "an off night", but knew we were better than that and showed up the next night and we satiated them with "the real deal".
Truth is, on those rare occasions in the beginning: we knew it was off. It was rushed. It was subpar, and it pained all of to serve it. But we did because at that moment, it's what made sense for the dollar attached to running a business.

Griffin has learned a lot from all that.
Those issues at Rumplings aren't even a fraction of his concerns for Mirin. Learn from your mistakes and adapt.



He and I talked briefly in person about this yesterday at my 2 year old niece's birthday party. We laughed. We both thought the whole thing was comical with how blown out of proportion this entire thing is and how anyone who think this was some sort of direct, personal attack.

As he stated: he's not in the hot chicken business. His forthcoming Mirin isn't even in the same restaurant category as Joella's other than perhaps "fast casual".

He's got no axe to grind with Tony personally or professionally. There's no ghostwriting fake moniker he's hiding behind. He's just providing a venue for honest, objective editorial in the Louisville food world.

Professionals I know in this town have been saying the same shit for years... Too soft on some places, too hard on others,
But mediocrity and monotony are accepted as the norm or expected.

At the end of the day - as a restaurant operator: your product and brand speaks for itself. Some will love it and eat it up (literally and metaphorically). Others won't. Some reviews you sincerely look at like: "where did we fail?", others you look at like: "this guy clearly doesn't know what good food (hell, even decent food), if it hit them in the face". The truth lies somewhere in between. It always does. I've perused over the comments on both friends who have shared the Insider Louisville article, as well as the initial post itself (and public opinion here on LHB), and there are as many who echo the same sentiments expressed in the review on Kitchen Banter. A wide cross section of both diners and professionals... What I read is a mix of "this guys is running his mouth", to "I've had great experiences and I don't agree", to "the original location I've tried and tried is horrible, but I love the other location"... There's a lot of discrepancy in opinion and opinion based on location.

And if it takes getting smacked in the face with some hot chicken to maybe just not get offended by a (very new) blog that has a marginally small reader base and see it as some sort of personal libelous attack, to maybe be the slightest bit introspective...

I say: Well damn. More people surely see the bad Yelp reviews than this silly little blog that makes no fault and takes pride in being unabashedly honest. And the bulk of its editorial content has been thoroughly laced with humor.

If you're that hurt by a blog post that somehow got some viral traction because it's contrary to a perfect model of "we're the best ever!"


Please consider the following:

No restaurant is perfect.
No amount of corporate training and systems makes a restaurant perfect 100% of the time. There are simply too many variables, guest preferences, expectations to arrive at a 100% guest satisfaction rating every. single. time.

But that's what we strive for.

I've had great service at fast food drive-thru's that was more honest, personable and genuine than I've had in fine dining restaurants. I've had fantastic meals served on plastic trays that wowed me and stopped me in my tracks more than a luxury entree I'm paying mint for.
I've also had some of the most memorable meals in places you'd expect it: places your paying top dollar.

The whole point is guest perception vs quality vs perceived value vs what the restaurant's model and intention is.

The combined sum of those factors is where you succeed. Not in being the most inventive chef, doing the coolest new technique.

Was the food good? Was the service what you expected, did it commensurate with the price you paid? Are you satisfied or disappointed?

I make no bones about the fact that I'm quite happy to get fast food over eating at a lot of mid priced fast casual places because I know exactly what I'm getting into. If I spent $15-30 on a meal I expect a reasonable level of satisfaction. If you fall short, the more the dissatisfaction. If I spend $5-10 and my food isn't perfect, I can shrug it off. I also can justify trying it again (especially if I've had it plenty of times before, with little to no issues). You reach a certain dollar amount on being pissed off if it didn't meet your expectations. More often than not the cheapest places tend to be reasonable consistent, and reliable for more dollars I spent...


Here's another case study: I was given three coupons for one free chicken plate with two sides right around the time the original Joella's opened (these coupons just now recently expired) and while originally excited to use them, have not used one of them due to increasingly mixed reviews I've heard from non-professionals and professionals alike. I've literally had non-foodie/non-restaurant worker friends tell me not to waste my time for free food unless I was starving and okay with being a little disappointed and let down.
I don't know about you, but I love chicken, fried chicken and especially hot chicken and I love a free meal even more... And I couldn't even commit my time to try three times to get a free meal, because everytime I suggested it I was talked out of it.



...And off my soapbox and back into the murkiness where the lurkers hide...

Ethan Ray.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

I don't know Griffin and had no opinion of him. I'm just a normal guy that reads about food. All I can say is this debacle has moved me from no opinion about him to a negative opinion. Since I don't know him, my opinion evolved from what I've read online. That's powerful and influences many people. I can't see Griffin gaining anything positive from this. He would have been better off by leaving the food reviews to others. I wouldn't want to patronize his business now and I sure others feel the same. Some things are better left unsaid. Apron doesn't even want support from this and that says a lot.

Further, he says "Marcus" the writer of the article is real and I find this highly doubtful based on searching online. Most people can be found online in some form these days. Insider Louisville couldn't find anything and neither could I.

Griffin and Ethan for the win on this one.

Griffin and Ethan for the win on this one.

What have they won?

Griffin and Ethan for the win on this one.

I'd say the only thing Griffin is won is less business when his restaurant opens. Most of the time, if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all is the best option.

Further, he says "Marcus" the writer of the article is real and I find this highly doubtful based on searching online. Most people can be found online in some form these days. Insider Louisville couldn't find anything and neither could I.

Marcus is a pen name. His real name is John Barron.

I suggested in a previous post that Mr. Paulin was digging himself into a deeper hole by continuing to comment. As someone who makes his living as a writer and regularly encounters people who want me to work for them for free, my opinion of this deal has been moved from neutral to negative.

For the record, I did visit Joella's once. As a fried chicken aficionado, I thought it was ok; only moderately better than KFC's version but at twice the price. I was pretty disappointed that KFC dropped theirs.

Further, he says "Marcus" the writer of the article is real and I find this highly doubtful based on searching online. Most people can be found online in some form these days. Insider Louisville couldn't find anything and neither could I.

Marcus is a pen name. His real name is John Barron.

It took a Google search for me to get that.

Just to be all boring and legal, even if we were to assume the article writer was publishing something not as opinion, but as facts, libel (injurious) does, at least in anything I've ever seen, require that it contain some level of provable falsity. The review, with one or two exceptions -- again not even as opinion -- is generally true, and speaks to the same thing that almost everyone I know who has eaten there has said.

I don't particularly care either way -- I like a lot of Tony's restaurants, and he's seemed like a stand-up guy before this, though I don't know him personally. The only possible exceptions here are so clearly stated as opinions (and questions, to boot), that this has absolutely not a lick of chance of going anywhere. It is ridiculous this was ever filed (was it actually officially filed?).

I guess one could make a general defamation case here, but unless I'm mistaken, an actual defense in this case is that the comments are _true_, even if generally falsity is assumed (non-injurious, again). I'm not sure how a lawyer could accurately assess the truth value of peoples' general opinions about a place, but if we want to do it in bulk, I'm also pretty sure a lot of people are going to say, "Yes, in fact, this is terrible" -- including people who have 0 to do with Griffin or his blog.

There is a big difference between: "I went into the kitchen and saw that frozen chicken is being used" and "This is so terrible it makes me wonder if it's frozen chicken."

I do wish the entire thing would go away, though. It's stupid. And, no offense to Griffin or his nascent blog, but about 1/100th the people would have seen the review if it hadn't been filed. Streisand Effect in full play.

/thought the review was shockingly puerile, poorly written, funny, and mostly accurate, fwiw
//not a lawyer, could be totally wrong
///Libelous conspiracy theory: the moon landing is fake, Reptilians run our government, and Tony and Griffin did this in concert to raise the viewership of Griffin's blog and are laughing at us all (overly reactive people: this is a joke).

[Robin Garr]

(overly reactive people: this is a joke).

saved my life and got me sober for 15 months.

Most important thing in this whole mess. Ethan, you were a part of the greatest meal I've ever had. It was one I will not forget. Continued success on your journey.
Kris

I think the bottom line here from a forumite point of view is to get in our last comments over the next day or so, and then leave it to rest.

As for Griffin, I'll be by your Asian street food place to check it out as I'm sure most of us will--and with our blessings. However, it seems that you created a monster in your blog. Remember some of the earlier discussions about Yelp and such sites that can reap harm on someone's business? Anything that goes on-line has a potential to mushroom as it swells with shares between people. Be mindful of who may have to pay the price, and how damaging that may be for the smallbusiness guy like yourself.

Good luck with your fruitful endeavors, compadre.