AndrewR wrote:I would just say that, from the point of view of someone who both participates in food forums/blogs and works full time in the restaurant industry, the effect of blogs on restaurants such as Urban Belly and Graham Elliot is, sorry guys, minor.
AndrewR wrote:As others have noted, LTH, Yelp, and other blogs do best to highlight smaller ethnic and neighborhood restaurants who don't have a PR rep or a known chef. Bill Kim and Graham Elliot Bowles have major PR efforts and national reputations--most of the buzz surrounding their restaurants came from the mainstream press and traditional reviewers.
AndrewR wrote:Yes, the internet is changing some things, but restaurants like this still survive and get the majority of their business through traditional means, such as reviews, concierge referrals, newsletters, and regular word-of-mouth.
I personally wouldn't group Bill Kim and Graham Elliot Bowles or Urban Belly and Graham Elliot in the same categories. With all due respect to Bill Kim, I had never heard of him prior to his opening UB. Graham Elliot Bowles, on the other hand, has been nationally acclaimed for his helming a 4-star restaurant attached to a Peninsula Hotel, one that is often rated as one of the best hotels in the world. On the other hand, UB is a neighborhood noodle joint, albeit an upscale one. Graham Elliot, with mixed success, attempts to be a focused, high-end dining restaurant. Apples and oranges. While I have no doubt that both restaurants have PR agents (I think they all do nowadays, right?

), a place like Urban Belly is much more reliant on word-of-mouth than Graham Elliot is. Graham Elliot will always attract tourists, out-of-towners, weekenders and conventioneers just given his reputation, the restaurant, the dining experience and the location. I just don't see a concierge recommending that tourists use their time and money to schlep out to UB, which is not located close to public transportation and in a strip mall.
Thus, blogs or LTH or Yelp are the new means of word-of-mouth. So to say that a place like UB doesn't need blogs or LTH or Yelp is sort of like saying it doesn't need word-of-mouth. Now, I'm not saying that UB can't get word-of-mouth business the old-fashioned way, but as you indirectly acknowledge, that is getting harder and harder because the internet is sort of a megaphone for word-of-mouth that can drown out everything else.
Given the rate at which restaurants fail, I don't think I'd be so quick to say that a restaurant can ignore a hugely growing aspect of non-MSM and myopically focus only on traditional means of getting business. I'm not saying that there aren't restaurants that currently do that, and I'm not trying to overstate the effect of food forum and blogs, but that whole sector is only growing and not going away, so as a business strategy, I'd be keeping my eye on it instead of pretending it doesn't exist if I were a restaurant owner.
AndrewR wrote:I work at a highly rated restaurant in the city with a relatively well-known chef. I am, to date, the only person at the restaurant currently who is aware that the LTH Forum even exists.
With all due respect to this chef, the fact that this particular chef doesn't know LTH exists doesn't really mean or prove anything. I personally know of chefs who are blissfully and intentionally ignorant about LTH or Yelp and that is due to mostly sociological or generational factors. They are of a certain age where they are trained to focus on the mainstream reviewers and because they don't really understand the internet, they dismiss it. That simply stems from a lack of understanding about the reach and/or use of the internet, rather than a learned philosophy about the effect of these discussion boards on their restaurants.
AndrewR wrote:What my chef tracks is professional reviews, traditional press, and that sort of thing. He's happy if the restaurant is appreciated by bloggers, but I've got to be honest, the majority of our guests aren't bloggers and don't read food blogs/forums. They are just old school, and that's not going to change significantly in the near future.
Again, that your chef focuses on professional reviews and/or traditional press is simply the result of conditioning, mindset, age and/or the focus of his personal business. But I have to strongly disagree that "this is not going to change significantly in the near future." It
has changed. And significantly. And quickly. That's why in part the Tribune has a food blog. That's why the new rollout of the Trib is significantly pared down. It's because the MSM is becoming less significant. You know who'd probably be the first to agree with this privately? Phil Vettel, the very person whose reviews your chef is so acutely tuned into.
The very reason why you hear the occasional rant by chefs against bloggers/discussion boards is precisely because it
has changed, and they know it. As for your chef's customers, they'll quickly change too. I don't know anyone under 60 who isn't heavily tuned into the internet, and as people become more comfortable with and reliant upon it, what they use the internet for will only expand over time. Thus, the people now who perhaps only use the internet to shop will eventually expand that use to sourcing news, reviews, and, yes, finding restaurants. Maybe, now, this chef is justifiably sitting pretty as his customers are blissfully ignorant of food forums and blogs, but that isn't going to last.