Monday, February 26, 2007
More on Manhattan's Kobe Club Klash
I've previously noted the fight between restauranteur Jeffrey Chodorow and New York Times dining critic Frank Bruni. Well, perhaps fight is a bit extreme, as it seems mostly Chodorow foresaking the suffering of slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, instead taking arms against a sea of ink of review troubles. Well, the story continues. Apparently the full-page ad that Chodorow took out ran $100,000, and now he's moved on to a blog: "born partly out of my love for food and for great restaurants (from neighborhood joints to the world’s finest) and partly in response to an increasingly negative, downright nasty climate that has surfaced in the world of restaurant journalism."
Some things become clearer through the blog - one being the content of the ad that Chodorow ran. Another is the self-pity emanating from the single blog post I could find there. Yes, the restaurant business is tough. So are many others in their own way. However, customers just ... don't ... care. Clients of my writing business don't care about my difficulties if I screw up. I know that I didn't care for any explanation when a plumber came in last year and bungled a repair job by taking a short cut, leaving us to mop up and repair the repair a month later. And no one wants a story of how difficult the restaurant business can be when they pay money for a meal. A reviewer certainly won't care, and after 20 years in the business, you'd think that Mr. Chodorow would know that and learn to cut his losses. Just like all those restaurant patrons who have a disappointment experience and know that the money - an often significant expense at Manhattan establishments - is gone and not coming back.
Some things become clearer through the blog - one being the content of the ad that Chodorow ran. Another is the self-pity emanating from the single blog post I could find there. Yes, the restaurant business is tough. So are many others in their own way. However, customers just ... don't ... care. Clients of my writing business don't care about my difficulties if I screw up. I know that I didn't care for any explanation when a plumber came in last year and bungled a repair job by taking a short cut, leaving us to mop up and repair the repair a month later. And no one wants a story of how difficult the restaurant business can be when they pay money for a meal. A reviewer certainly won't care, and after 20 years in the business, you'd think that Mr. Chodorow would know that and learn to cut his losses. Just like all those restaurant patrons who have a disappointment experience and know that the money - an often significant expense at Manhattan establishments - is gone and not coming back.
