After my review of the February burger from Sub Zero Vodka Bar I was contacted by the Riverfront Times to participate in an interview with Bill Burge and Pi Pizzeria owner Chris Sommers regarding the spattering of Tweets that followed our visit and the place of social media in food writing and the restaurant business.
The outcome of that interview can be found here.
I think the article is quite good and sets the table for a larger discussion once folks get past the more scandalous elements of a poor selection of words and a burger review. I do hope that as a community of writers, chefs and owners we can get to our seats at that table.
There should be no doubt that I understand my part in the ensuing disagreement over food, social media and the hard working folks who make and serve food for a living. I presented a thought that was in context for only a few of the people who follow me on Twitter which was a mistake. I get it.
However, I've gotten a fair amount of feedback that writing about my burger project threatens local business owners and the livelihood of their employees. I do not agree with this viewpoint, but I am willing to listen to anyone who wants to make the argument. My only recommendation is that you use more than a 140 character Tweet to do it. Perhaps a well meaning business owner in St. Louis would be willing to host folks for drinks and debate. It seems like the Schlafly Bottleworks or The Royale would be fitting locations for such an event. I'm unsure who would be neutral enough to moderate it though. Maybe we can just stop yelling at each other in bursts on Twitter and yell at each other over drinks instead.
My friend Kelli Best Oliver shared her thoughts on food writing recently, and I think her reasoning is worth consideration. If you have even a passing interest in this debate, would encourage you to read it.
Finally, I'd like to share my interview in its entirety - if only to gratify my own ego.
Are you more likely to air a restaurant complaint to management or publicly, and why?
For me, I think that is a matter of context.
In my personal life, if I am having a meal and something is not right, I will try and address it directly while I am there. If I am happy with the resolution there is a very good chance that I will say something favorable on Twitter. I do think that when given the chance most people want to and will do the right things. When they do, kudos are deserved.
There are still times when I go out with the intention of not being @amveats, but I can see how that side of me can show up. The line between me and my digital self seems pretty thin at times. I think this is because the tools in my pocket make it so easy to share – I can Tweet, Yelp and update my site and Facebook status from my iphone in a matter of seconds if I really want to.
However, when I am preparing to write about food, I’m going out to eat with a purpose. My intention is to tell a story and share it with my readers.
For many of my readers the act of eating something outside of the home is a luxury. They are spending their discretionary income. It may be arrogant on my part to assume that I’m having a direct impact on their spending decisions, but I bet it happens from time to time. I take that seriously. Why? These are people who have given me the courtesy of their time and feedback. Don’t I have a responsibility to give my opinion, for whatever its worth, on what is good and bad, what works and does not? To avoid this responsibility is a disservice to the readers I’ve cultivated over time.
How is this obligation different than a restaurant who has cultivated a following through good execution? Why is one more valuable than the other? Because one is online and one is made of bricks and mortar? Because someplace has employees? With my writing, if I get sloppy, don’t I run the risk of losing readers? At my job, don’t I advance based on reviews of my performance, why is it bad form to apply the same standard to a restaurant?
Having covered my obligations to my readers, what is my obligation to the places I write about? In scope are to be fair and honest. I would include standing behind what I’ve written and addressing issues when I’ve said something wrong. I have made mistakes in my writing, and I’ve been called on them. It sucks, but I’d like to think that I didn’t strike out when it happens. I try to look at what I did and didn’t do, make amends where I could and to learn something.
What is out of scope? Directly helping a business owner improve how their business operates.
Which method have you found to be most effective in resolving problems?
It is the rare person that can resolve a problem within 140 characters. I don’t think you can beat sitting down and talking with someone. The advent of Twitter does not negate thousands of years of conflict resolution.
What pros and cons do you see with customers, chefs, and restaurant owners using Twitter, Yelp, etc?
I think that collaborative media is by its very nature, disruptive. It has changed the ways that we create and consume information, if you can actually call a 140 character burst “information”. Although the application of these technologies is still relatively new, they are and will continue to fundamentally change the way that businesses, in this case restaurants, and their customers interact.
I’ve heard the comment that if you have an issue at a business, tell the manager or owner. Well, guess what – every day your customers are telling you what they think. They are doing it on their blogs and Twitter accounts, and they are giving you real time feedback. Are we going to ignore the message because we don’t approve of is delivery method?
These are disruptive tools. They are changing the way we interact and do business. Is there something so special about food and the people who make it that they are somehow is exempt from this?
I agree that these tools are for the most part public utilities. Given that, I don’t think its reasonable to think that a restaurant can control every message linked to their business. That ocean is way to big to boil. So what is left? Yelling at and in front of current and future customers? Would you do that in your restaurant? Why would you do it online?
These tools are all about building a community and a relationship, but so many times they are used by business owners to blast a sales pitch. There is a way to leverage these tools to tell your story. As a consumer of content and services, it’s ok to tell me about your special on Twitter, but it’s not ok to tell me a dozen times a day. Its ok to engage me when I write something you disagree with. Its not ok to somehow imply that I’m a “foodie”, which I think is slang for “amateur”, and a method to try to diminish the value of my comments.
Savvy users of tools like Facebook and Twitter find it more effective to talk about being at the farmers market and finding some fantastic ingredient that will be used in a dish tonight. They are not using it to turn off the very people who they derive an existence from, yet that is what happens. It seems counterintuitive to me.
All things being equal, the wall between the kitchen and the people who talk about food has come down. You have this confluence of opinion and pent up frustration, and they are obviously not coexisting in harmony, they are generating conflict.
I have tried to put myself in the shoes of a chef who has worked hard perfecting a craft and is putting his or her best plate forward nightly. I’m sure is frustrating to read negative comments and reviews that seem both nameless and faceless. I understand why a chef would take to Twitter and defend himself against criticism.
If we accept that we are dealing with largely uncoordinated bursts of communication, what do we use to retaliate? More bursts of communication. To make it worse, most of the time these bursts are missing a context. Where does that get the business owner or the chef?
I’ve seen the love that some chefs and restaurants here in St. Louis get. They have fans. Many times the adoration is justified. These fans will undoubtedly take to Twitter to defend a chef, I know this because I’ve seen it happen. I think if a chef or a restaurant is honestly putting out its best food, its best service, if they are working their asses off and pushing themselves, then taking to their Twitter accounts to defend every perceived attack defeats the purpose of all the time and effort they spent generating good will and relationships with their customers. If a restaurant is doing these things, the food should speak for itself, internet comments be damned.
What responsibilities do you think diners have in making online reviews?
Be fair. Be honest. Put things in context. Understand that your words have meaning. Use your own name or develop an online persona that can be associated with you. I blog and tweet under my own name, if I say something wrong people can find me. And trust me, they do.
I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of drive-by reviews, any more than we will ever get rid of angry people. Does anyone think that they could stop a disgruntled, or worse yet generally disagreeable customer from sharing their experiences with a group of friends over coffee? I understand that the issue is that we’ve gone from a small group of people sharing ideas to sharing the same thought with hundreds or thousands. I think with that fact comes a level of responsibility, backed up by a track record of being a credible source of content.
However, being honest and fair does not mean that I take responsibility for how someone runs or does not run their business. It means I’m trying to do the right things in the right way, for me. It means that I have set a standard for myself and I’m trying to live up to it each time I write.
These tools are new, but their existence does not somehow mean that the cream will not rise to the top. Again, the hard part is sifting though the static for the signal.
What responsibilities do you think restaurant staff members, chefs, and owners have in using social media?
When you are dealing with an organization, I think people need training on how to use a tool and the message needs to be coordinated to a certain extent. Using social media tools requires a set of skills that move the user past the concept of promotion. It requires the ability to develop a voice and foster a community.
I think the staff of a restaurant has a different function in communicating than the chef does. There are personalities and voices within a restaurant that have important things to say. Combined and coordinated, I think they can help tell the story behind the restaurant, they can help to build a long term relationship with not only their customers, but communities both real world and digital.
