Julia Thiel’s Profile
Recent Comments
Early Returns on New Dining Survey Not So Favorable
"While some of the people on the list are high income earners, there are also those who do not make a lot of money but who save in order to take two or three trips a year for the purpose of dining." And in the rating system you use, their opinions wouldn't carry a lot of weight because they can't rate as many restaurants as others do. There may be merits to the system you've come up with, but it does inherently favor the opinions of wealthy people who can afford to eat regularly at expensive restaurants, and it seems to me that the resulting guide is also aimed at them, for better or for worse.
Early Returns on New Dining Survey Not So Favorable
I have, in fact, read the book (not cover to cover, but I've looked at it pretty closely), and if you can point out any inaccurate statements I've made I'll be happy to correct them. Out of the top 50 North American restaurants in the book, 32 are either in California or New York state, 15 of them in NYC. Seven are located somewhere besides the east or west coast, two of those in the midwest.
As far my notion of who the book is directed at, it's taken directly from the cover, which says it's "the ultimate guide for destination diners." In your intro, you define this as "someone who plans weekends and vacation travel around dining out." I didn't say there's anything wrong with that--it makes sense to me, actually--but it does take money, especially to eat at the kinds of places listed in the guide. And while experience with fine dining might be necessary to be an authority on high-end restaurants, I'm not convinced that experience alone necessarily makes one an expert.
Early Returns on New Dining Survey Not So Favorable
My criticism of the Opinionated About Dining guide is mostly based on the probability that most readers of Plotnicki's blog live in New York, which would bias the data toward that city. I know that he solicited responses from around the country and that many of his respondents travel a lot, but if a high percentage of the reviews came from New Yorkers it would probably cause New York restaurants to rank higher than they would otherwise. I'm not saying that New York doesn't have a lot of great restaurants, or even that more Chicago places should have been on the list, just that the survey may be flawed.
The issue of Plotnicki not dining out anonymously is tangential in a way--as others have pointed out, his opinions aren't the only ones in the guide. But again, if a lot of the respondents are fans of his blog, they're likely to agree with his philosophy on dining out and apply it themselves, at least if they have the necessary clout. Which is nice for them, but makes their dining experience less typical of what most diners can expect, whether or not they "communicate to the restaurant that [they] want their A game and not their B game." Everyone wants that, don't they? But not everyone has the connections, cash, arrogance, or whatever else it takes to ensure they'll get it. Of course, the guide is specifically aimed at "destination diners," or people with enough money to plan their travels around fine dining. Maybe Plotnicki should retitle it "The Rich New Yorker's Guide to Dining in the U.S. and Europe" just to make it clear who should read it.
See more comments by Julia Thiel »
Recent Posts
Julia Thiel hasn't written a post yet.
Recent Favorites
Julia Thiel hasn't favorited a post yet.
Recent Polls
Julia Thiel hasn't answered any polls yet.
Recent Quizzes
Julia Thiel hasn't taken any quizzes yet.
Haven't tried the burgers yet. But the guys from the Trib is Kevin Pang, not Kevin Pan.