Restaurant reviewer busted

On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:08:51 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:


the restaurateur was interfering with the conduct of her business. she was
not interfering in the conduct of his.

your pal,
blake
 
On 03/01/2011 11:18 AM, notbob wrote:

We would like to have more doctors here. We train a lot of doctors, and
it is a lot cheaper to attend medical school and get a licence in Canada
than in the US. Doctors can earn a lot more in the US than in Canada.
What ends up happening is that people come here to get the education and
go through residency to get a licence, then move to the US.
 
On 2011-01-03, Dave Smith wrote:


It's a scam, pure and simple. You can't even buy one in a store cuz
they don't want you to hear it before shoveling out the insane prices
they want for these things. They're all promoted by ads, the late
Paul Harvey pioneering the concept, where you can't hear one till you
actually send them money for it. It's all word of mouth or on-air
advertising. To be honest, they do have "showings", where you can
schedule a demo at limited presentations. I had to wait for 2 yrs to
attend one of these "condo sharing" scams.

I have (still do) a old system they sold in the early 80s, the
Roommate II, which consists of 2 101 outdoor spkrs, with a minimal amp
built into one so you can play from anything with a earphone jack. I
went to the long awaited scheduled demo with a fave CD I'd played a
million times on my Roommate II system through a ancient Sony CD
player. I put my CD in their $500 Acoustic Wave and turned up the
volume. Crap!! Not ever remotely as good as my RMII sys, in volume
or fidelity. I later heard their AW clock radio ($350!) and it was
even worse. Not even as good as the single 3x9 dash spkr in my old
'70 Pontiac Catalina.

You want to pay the insanely exorbitant prices Bose charges for their
mediocre-at-best systems, be my guest.

nb
 
On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 01:47:04 +0000 (UTC), [email protected] (Steve
Pope) wrote:

It doesn't make any sense that a reviewer would waste their time
reviewing a restaurant that doesn't want to be reviewed. Most of them
want the publicity and are begging for a review.


--

Never trust a dog to watch your food.
 
On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:03:46 -0800, "Steve B"
wrote:



So, you think the food critic at the LA Times has an agenda or that
the LA Times has some agenda about restaurants in general and Red
Medicine in general? And exactly what sort of agenda do you think they
have over there at the LAT? You think they are targeting some
restaurants and writing or publishing false reviews for them just to
do them in or for a lark, shits and giggles?

Honey, I'm sorry, but I have read enough absolute stupidity from you
today to qualify you for a job at Fox sitting at the right hand of
Glenn Beck. Really, you're that dumb, misinformed and prone to spout
off when not knowing your ass from your elbow.

Your total lack of knowledge about the upscale restaurant business, LA
food scene, LA Times, S. Irene Virbila, your foolish and almost
unbelievable ability to misunderstand and incorrectly interpret what a
food critic does and then go on to misuse the term "criticism" in this
context make you prime monkey-boy. Are you trying to out-do Sarah
Palin, or what?

Anyway, say hi to Sheldon.

Boron



This from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/30/AR2010123004787.html

***********************************************
The undisputed facts are these: Virbila and three guests showed up for
their reservation at a new neo-Vietnamese restaurant called Red
Medicine in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. The restaurant was busy,
so Virbila waited, and waited, for a table.

After 40 minutes, none was forthcoming, but the restaurant's managing
partner, Noah Ellis, was. Having spotted Virbila in the waiting area,
he approached her and declared that he knew who she was (Virbila had
unfavorably reviewed one of Ellis's partners' work at another
restaurant). He ordered her and her friends to leave. As a parting
shot, he produced a camera and took a snap of Virbila, who protested
the unauthorized photo session.

Ellis posted the photo on the restaurant's Tumblr site later that
evening. "Our purpose for posting this is so that all restaurants can
have a picture of her and make a decision as to whether or not they
would like to serve her," Ellis wrote. After registering his opinion
on her work, he added, "We're writing this to make everyone aware that
she was unable to dine here, and as such, any retribution by her or on
her behalf via a review cannot be considered to be unbiased."
ad_icon

In an instant, Virbila's anonymity, tended during 16 years as a
critic, was gone.

In subsequent comments to the Los Angeles Times, Ellis defended his
actions: "Irene was not the person any of us wanted reviewing our
restaurant. . . . This was not a rash decision." (His post has since
been deleted from the restaurant's site.)

But judging by the reaction from food writers and restaurant-goers,
Red Medicine seems to have burned itself. Flame-throwing foodies
flooded Yelp, the all-comers review site, to denounce the restaurant
for its actions. The L.A. Weekly's Jonathan Gold, a Pulitzer
Prize-winning critic, observed: "It was a panicked move, and I suspect
they knew it was dumb even as they were doing it. They did no real
harm to Virbila - if anything, they lent her pluckiness - but they
made themselves look second-rate."
 
In article
,
ImStillMags wrote:


I think it depends. We had a little flap in a local newsgroup about a
review published by a major newspaper (San Francisco Chronicle) in our
area. There was speculation about how they did reviews. Well, it's
published right in the newspaper (or at least on their web site, which
is what I looked at). All published reviews are based on anonymous
visits, paid by the newspaper, and based on a certain number of visits:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/07/FDLB10FVS4.DT
L

On the other hand, we've all seen reviews in small, local papers; where
every single review has an ad for that very same restaurant on the very
same page. The reviews are all glowing, and not a negative word is to
be seen, even if the restaurant is really bad. The author of the review
is usually not listed, making me suspect that it's the ad manager who
wrote it. I also wouldn't be surprised if the restaurant paid for the
meal.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA
[email protected]
 
On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:39:52 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:


i'm talking about using a false name for reservation. and many people
havementioned that most reviewers will not review a place ubless it's been
open for a certain period of time longer than nine days.

blake
 
On Jan 3, 1:38?am, "Steve B" wrote:

Probably most would (or, at least a fair proportion of persons posting
here), but not all. There are some honest people around.

This has been a most illuminating thread. In response to a rather one-
sided set of attacks on the restaurant, I posted three simple and, it
appears, indisputable, facts:
1. The reviewer lied about her identity (since then it appears that
she and other reviewers habitually lie about their identities).
2. She did so to facilitate the performance of her job, therefore for
her own financial advantage.
3. I, personally, would prefer not to do business with people who lie
to me, including this reviewer (the point, for the dense, being that a
restauranteur is entitled to feel similarly).

Since then, I added a fourth simple fact:
4. The credibility of the reviewer is compromised by her behaviour.

The result was series of irrelevant replies by persons who seemed to
be unable to distinguish between facts and value judgments (and I have
expressed no opinion about the rights and wrongs in this matter) and
who seemed to think that anyone who did not happen to share their
opinions was thereby stupid.

But the real pleasure was in uncovering a couple of foul-mouthed
group.loons. It's always useful to know where the filth is hiding.

LW
 
Goomba wrote:

(laugh) It's George's, Retired Old Men Eating Out.

Since he told me about them, I notice them everywhere. Random
groups of retired men having breakfast or lunch. Members come
and go from the table, they don't all arrive together like a group.

nancy
 
On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:18:53 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:


how was she not a customer? she went in there to get some food, and the
restaurateur treated her damn shabbily.

blake
 
On Dec 31, 9:51?am, sf wrote:



Exactly.
Thank you, you put it correctly.

Steve B seems to think that he holds all the answers. Obviously he's
unfamiliar with the restaurant business from any angle but the
customer's seat.
 
On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:24:29 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:


I've worked for a couple owners of companies that always charged their
friends and friends of friends more than a Yellow Page customer. Even
their own families were charged more.

-sw
 
Dan Abel wrote:


Online reviewers come in 2 flavors. The idjits that just want to
throw words into cyberspace- and those folks who have a passion for
that which they are reviewing.

That's why I never trust the rating until I read a dozen or so of the
best and worst reviews. Recipes are the worst- "It looks so
good-- I'll try it next week" 5 stars ; or, "I used different
ingredients than you, and cooked it differently, but this recipe still
sucks" 1 star.

Jim
 
On 01/01/2011 4:54 PM, Jim Elbrecht wrote:


I am usually been fairly lucky when it comes to recognizing recipes
worth trying. The Toronto Star has been a good source of keeper
recipes. Some of my best recipes have come from there. One of them was
curried chicken with coconut milk, my wife's favourite dish.
 
On 3 Jan 2011 16:25:57 GMT, notbob wrote:


Of course there are, and on almost every block, too, but there are few
restaurants that get reviewed by the NYT and most of the reviews tend
to be of very high end places. That is not a failing of the system,
but just how it works.

Just about all the Broadway shows get reviews, but there is a lot of
theater in NYC that never has a reviewer put a butt on a seat or a
word in print. Just the way it works.

I think of it as I do Greek Tragedy...Aristotle says the hero has to
be exalted, so when he fails, there is a catharsis.

Boron
 
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