Louisville Originals. Too hot to handle.

I am sure this will rub a lot of feathers the wrong way but here goes. I do not believe they are what they purport to be, so I sent this e-mail to them. Go check out my facts if you think I am wrong. No one is perfect, but for a website with a loyal following touting them as they do, they are quite lacking.

This board is filled with people who eat at Louisville this and Louisville that. I have no problem at all with that. The last 3 places I dined in were Cachito Mio, Primo and Winston's. All locally owned. It's just that the Louisville Originals website either needs to do what it leads consumers to believe it does, or get out of the biz.

Here is the text of the e-mail I sent them.

I love dining at our local eateries and do so on a regular basis. If you want to help them, you should be more diligent about maintaining your website. There are many broken links; some that do work are either outdated or dead. Honestly, if Louisville Originals is a proponent of local eateries, it seems as though this website and the individuals behind it should be more involved and concerned about the product you're putting on the internet. If I were some of these members, I would be way less than happy about the service you're providing.

To give you some examples, click on Winston's and the page cannot be found. Does Yaching's even exist? The Park Place on Main link is dead. Intermezzo says, returning soon. If the Louisville Originals website is to build awareness and loyalty for our local dining scene, then in my opinion it is severely lacking and needs to get up to snuff.

I don't want anyone to think I am picking on Louisville Originals. I appreciate the concept, but please either get with it and really be part of promoting the Louisville Originals or get out of the business and let them find someone who can.

This was posted in February '08:

Hello. This is Nate Schmidt, the webmaster for the Louisville Originals....

The rest of the post was announcing gift certs that were going on sale at that time. He's registered on the forum. Maybe you could PM him(?)

This was posted in February '08:

Hello. This is Nate Schmidt, the webmaster for the Louisville Originals....

The rest of the post was announcing gift certs that were going on sale at that time. He's registered on the forum. Maybe you could PM him(?)

I e-mailed the site. I will make sure to post the response here. I know my OP was harsh, but with the bias toward local dining establishments both on this board and the Louisville Originals, due diligence is expected.

There were some changes in the organization back in February. The local group split from the national parent. I wonder how that has affected the day-to-day operations?

Link to Business First article on Lou Originals Split

I don't understand how you connect your perceived "bias" here toward local dining establishments with Louisville Originals website maintenance. Are those two things related?

I don't understand how you connect your perceived "bias" here toward local dining establishments with Louisville Originals website maintenance. Are those two things related?

Actually, they are. Louisville Originals IS supposed to be all about Louisville restaurants. Did you miss that point? That said, wouldn't one expect the website to maintain a current and accurate database of the said Louisville restaurants? I could be wrong. Maybe I am.

We also had a few isssues with Louisville Originals. When we joined, it took forever to recieve any information, promotionial material, stickers, etc.. (In fact we never did recieve the latter. We never really got the concept ( this was a franchice type of deal) when I recieved my coupon list of gift certificates I called to see how and what percentage of profits I would recieve from their sale... to my surprise, I was informed that I recieved nothing, nilch, zero, from the sale of the gift certificates. This was shocking... what was worse, was the lack of staff support, and the web site issue, advertising support, etc..
Somebody is making money off of this endeavor, and I don't know who it is. At the dicounted rate of the early sales,, we decided it was not worth our while to remain members. I wish it had worked out, but I agree that more has to be done to promote local businesses, I'm just not sure that this is the way to do it. It all sounds good on paper, but what do they do... and where do the profits go?? Just interested.

William Smith
Owner/Chef
Shady Lane Cafe

In addition, our customers were shocked when they realized that we recieved nothing from the sale of the certificates, and were apologetic to point of not using all the ones that they had bought. I've seen a few billboards, and some standard promo stuff in Business first, and thats about it.

First, once we qualify, we will join, second we don't expect to receive a cut of gift cert. sales, we expect to receive new customers. We have been involved in gift cert. promos before were you do it for pub, new customers, who might not visit your establishment otherwise.

The folks that run this are in the biz and are very busy. They don't do this to make a living, but for the love of local dining scene.

If you want to take over, sign up.

My god people, the Louisville Originals is a grassroots organization that is being run on a shoestring budget by a group of dedicated people who own and operate restaurants here. They operate the Louisville Originals in their spare time outside of the 100 plus hours they work in their restaurants. So the website has a few dead links? We're lucky they even have the ability to maintain a website. These people are doing this for no pay. They are doing this simply in an honest effort to keep locally owned restaurants in business in Louisville. I have donated many hours of free legal work to the organization. Maybe someone with an IT background would be willing to donate some time to update and fix the website.

Somebody is making money off of this endeavor, and I don't know who it is.
William Smith
Owner/Chef
Shady Lane Cafe

To the contrary, somebody(s) have lost a lot of time and money just trying to level the playing field between well capitalized corporation chain restaurants and independent locally owned restaurants in Louisville. I know these people and have done work for them. They have sacrificed their precious hours away from work to fight an uphill battle. They have faced unimaginable obstacles from every source since they started this group. No one is "making money" off of this. Thye are trying to make sure that owners like you make money.

Ron, sorry if you think I'm being an ass, but if LO is going to help the locals, they need to have a website that works. It's more than just a few dead links. Click on Upcoming Event Calendar and you get this --- Please check back for upcoming Louisville Originals Events. How is that helping local restaurants? Click on --- In the News and it will show you the 2006 Best of Louisville Finalists and Winners. Sorry Ron, but this sort of stuff is definitely NOT helping local restaurants.

Before anyone wants to bust my boys, please be aware that I am a staunch supporter of locally owned and operated dining establishments. I want to see them be successful and if the LO website is supposed to be helping to attain that goal, it needs some improvement. As I stated in my OP, when I received a response from LO I would post it here. Well, I did receive one and here it is.

Hi Doogy,
We appreciate your comments and your support of the Louisville Originals. Our organization has recently undergone a major reorganization. We have a plan in place to address all of the issues you have identified. However Rome wasn't built in a day, and we are a volunteer organization. We hope to have the kinks worked out by July 2008.

Best regards,
Kerry

Kerry DeMuth
President
Schneider DeMuth Advertising, Inc.
Kerry.DeMuth@sdausa.com
118 W. Breckinridge Street
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 635-7171
Fax (502) 635-7425

Ron, sorry if you think I'm being an ass,

Doogy, please stop taking everything personally. I never said you were an ass.

Ron, sorry if you think I'm being an ass,

Doogy, please stop taking everything personally. I never said you were an ass.

Actually, it seemed to me that you were the one taking it personally.

Ron, sorry if you think I'm being an ass,

Doogy, please stop taking everything personally. I never said you were an ass.

Actually, it seemed to me that you were the one taking it personally.

LOL. ok.

Sorry If I misunderstood the deal on Louisville Orginals. I'm still a little confused over the money issue (I'm not suggestioning that anybody is being ripped off) I'm just trying to understand the numbers... 56 dining establishments paying over 2,000 a year in give aways = well over 100,000 per year.. right? And how much does a website take to mantain? A few adds and events per year? I support and own a local business.. and wish the Louisville Orginals all the luck in the world as well as all our awesome local places. I was just curious about the economics of the deal. I joined to be a part of the local scene, but as a small business, I could not, and don't need to give away thousands a year in free meals. Just my end of it. I know all about working 100 hours a weeks and admire the individuals that took this on... maybe they could spend a little more time on the web site and doing local events/tastings etc. I have a good marketing guy that might be able to help.. but then again, who doesnt. Best to all. The Louisville scene rocks!

In Fairness to myself.. I was urged to join by an outside party and did not fully understand the logistics of it all. I thought there would be a mass marketing push.. banners, bumper stickers, and articles about my Cafe. My Bad. I hope I'm in a position to help out in the future.. but now it's just about getting by, day to day. Peace.

William Smith
Owner/Chef
Shady Lane Cafe