DaveO

@darkstar: If you were visiting Cheyenne, Wy, Yelp might not be the best alternative. Yelp reviews tend to thin out away from major cities, or the deeper one goes into the suburbs of major cities. It gets more coverage in urban areas. I looked up cheyenne, Wy restaurants in yelp, bing.com and google.com. Bing has search results as does google that reference other potential review sources such as tripadvisor. It has reviews via the more regional/local strong directory dexknows. Bing has a deal with yelp. It reviews restaurants and shows the yelp reviews. It also references other review sources in its results. Bing also has a deal with facebook. If your FB friends like "something on FB, you can see it in Bing. Of course if: 1. I were traveling to Cheyenne, Wy. 2. I had fine or quality dining on my mind 3. I had friends who dined in and around Cheyenne................. I'd probably just call my friends. Google has been pushing its own volume of reviews. In scanning the volume of reviews (just volume--not quality) it appears there might be a similar quantity of reviews on the local pages of restaurants in google as in yelp// just roughly. In looking at a list of top restaurants in yelp for cheyenne, Wyoming #7 was Godfather's pizza. My guess is that if I were looking for better cuisine I'd find it in the DC region more easily than in Cheyenne. Just guessing, of course.

I like the flavor of this thread, cracks me up. Like Kibbee Nayee I was there many years ago...probably first time was a day or two after Phyllis Richman reviewed it for the Wash Post maybe in its first year of operations and gave it a killer positive review. Hey it was great. I've been there quite a few times over the years. Yeah...I'd say its gone downhill from when it first opened. Its still pretty, IMHO.

I was pretty stunned by this. Its occurring right now. We were contacted by a pretty large, significant, name bar/restaurant for bartending staffing. In this example we are filtering leads and resumes for the establishment and will pass on leads to the operators/managers/ownership. We can perform more tasks or less tasks with regard to supplying candidates. We can filter for people with a lot of experience or less, contingent on your needs. In any event we reached out to both old/experienced grads and newer grads via direct email to our large base of graduates. Six minutes after the email went out we had 13 resumes for the 2 or 3 positions. That is a lot and that is fast. I scanned the contacts. Can't vouch for most of them but I know one is a very competent, efficient, effective, and friendly bartender and has done very well over the last few years. Really a stunning response. and for those professionals out there...we provide these placement services free to the employer. you can check my sig on the professional bartending school, contact me direct through, DR, or contact our placement manager, Fatima at pbsplacement@gmail.com (oh my...as I was leaving I saw that we had 47 grad responses to the opportunity). stunned me. that is a lot of responses.)

Being relatively new to DR.com and in that I spend a lot of my time optimizing local businesses for higher ranking in search I just found this thread and read through from the beginning. Interesting, to me, for several reasons: A lot of the comments from 2005 and 2006 were spot on. All those restaurant web sites with music and flash that were frankly lousy with giving the most pertinent information such as address, phone number, menu, prices, reservations, parking, etc. I clicked on a lot of those website links. Many are no longer around. (hmmmmmmm) (It wasn't just the websites why those restaurants have closed) In 2005/06/07 I worked with noted busy web designers that were doing multiple restaurant sites. All flash and fancy. Little substance. I was alternatively focusing on trying to get high search engine rankings for smb's that wanted to be found for effective business phrases via search engines. Flash and noise and slick intro pages with no substance always hampered that. Today is different. First of all mobile is highly important, more easily accessible, easier to effect design, has apps and simpler tools that allow restaurants to get updates on the site on a daily basis. Hopefully most (but not all) restaurants have rid themselves from the dizzying array of flash sounds and color that distracted from basic and relevant information. (I too had a hard time experiencing the Taylor website). I went back and looked at some club websites as opposed to restaurant sites. 2 of the 3 I viewed still start off with music. But they are so different. Its really not about the food or even the quality of drinks...its about the experience. They are a different breed of animal. Hopefully for the restaurant sites they don't take the lead from the club sites. From a search perspective what is incredibly important is Google+ Local formerly google places/google maps....that responds to enormous high volume search phrases for regional restaurants, sea food restaurants, italian restaurants, deli's, American food, etc etc etc. Like so many others here, as a user...what I want is info. Give me your address, phone number, a way to make reservations. Tell me if there is parking...and above all give me the current menu with current prices.

That arlnow thread has very entertaining comments. Was by there last week last tuesday, which is trivia night. played trivia for the first time, and ate entirely mediocre food w/ a few beers. My oh my...the bill got big. and oh yeah...b/4 we quit our trivia team of old timer's that used to go to kitty's b/4 it became wilson tavern finished 2nd to last. LOL. bar trivia...its not my thing!!!

I've always been a huge fan of my favorite alcohol, which = STRONG. for the time being Makers Mark has dropped in attractiveness.

I'm of two perspectives of Yelp and and of a third perspective vis a vis comparing it to DR. I read yelp reviews. I like them. They are neither as full of information, knowledge, expertise, or passion as the reviews and comments here. DR has amazing content. OTOH, I'm probably no better at reviewing or have any more knowledge than typical Yelp reviewers. Fortunately for me, in going here I find commentary and knowledge that far exceeds what I have. Plus the readings are often entertaining along with the expertise. I think this is a great forum, full of knowledge and passion. As a business guy I'm painfully aware of Yelp. They are aggressive in chasing advertising revenues. Very aggressive. They have a reputation for being above the norm, with threats, etc. From my perspective they have some very good salespeople; very direct, to the point, aggressively pursuing their points, and not time wasters. Yelp is a very commercial web business. Its very different than DR. They probably have 5, 10, 15 to 20 million US businesses listed in their website. Its more like an Internet Yellow Pages. (IYP) but its a better internet resource. Its rankings for businesses are always higher than other IYP's or review sites. And the content is interesting--its full of reviews---maybe expert, maybe not, maybe stupid....but it is a lot of opinions. Yelp is very commercial. Its publicly traded. They earned over $137 million this past year. They push for advertising revenues and other revenues. Its expensive to run. They have been showing losses even with all those revenues. Its a big challenging commercial business. As a business operator I am so leeeeeeeeeeeeery of the reviews on yelp as with any other source. We have a couple of businesses with web reviews. They aren't restaurants. They are not traditional places where people want to write reviews, good bad or indifferent. The bar school in Arlington has 17 reviews but only 5 show and 12 are Yelp filtered. F*ck that. Those 12 filtered reviews are "supposedly" a function of their "processes" and algos. That is BS. Its a mechanism of leverage to get us to advertise. I'm sure if we advertised those 12 filtered reviews would all or mostly show. (they are all very good). DR is not Yelp and Yelp is not DR. But a lot of websites aren't DR and DR is not a lot of different websites. If I were shopping or dining out in other cities I'd use yelp and google reviews. There are a lot of them. Yelp reported over 36 million aggregate reviews (I wonder if that includes filtered ). Google has that many or more. Both those websites encourage more and more reviews....because people find them compelling....(informative or not, expertly written or not) Haven't written a yelp review in a long time, I have to admit. I just don't feel like being an active yelper.

More about New Columbia Distillers and Green Hat Gin from the Washington Post today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/value-added-ending-a-career-with-a-slow-gin-biz/2013/02/10/cd6823c2-721f-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html

Dean: There aren't a lot of self proclaimed libertarian ceo's (of which I'm aware) (I can think of a large bank ceo) but not a lot of others. Did Mackey establish his own edicts about running the business that are very different from generally accepted norms? How is pay as compared to local supermarket chains? I've read where the insurance coverage has its own quirks. Just asking b/c libertarians spice up all their commentary with dire comments about threats from the government. Just wondering when one is in control of a very large firm if he/she installs very unique standards across the board that in some eyes could reflect the controls of an individual versus "norms"

well, Dean, you convinced me not to go there anymore. I haven't been a prolific WFM shopper, and have only been semi aware of some of the background story on WFM. Frankly they are beautiful stores and a pleasure to shop in, but there are a growing number of markets that have simply upgraded making the food shopping experience more pleasurable. There is something a little extra stinky about a business that pushes one type of message about its practices and then engages in business practices that are the exact opposite. Business in general is tough. Very tough. I don't know all the stories about its growth and competition with other food markets. The very nature of that process is never pretty. In fact its often extremely ugly. I don't know all the details about its growth in other markets, purchases of other chains, its competition --but I just know that is usually a less than savory experience. I can also comment with experience on the DC location thing, having used to do that as a commercial RE broker in the region. Its usually hard. Most big businesses have these models and in city locations don't fit the model. Its usually a very tough deal for them to go forward. Its not unusual for that process to have been problematic. But IMHO, marketing and presenting yourself one way and then acting at complete odds with that marketing presence is just a pretty big lie.

had the gumbo today. Loved it. spicy, warm, wonderful sausage. also visited the little boys room there. In lieu of wall paper or simple paint the wall above the tile is completely papered over with pages from cookbooks, food pics. Really interesting!!!!! kudo's for the design work in the men's loo!!!!!

Very interesting thread and comments. I enjoy the business aspects of the industry. Frankly I enjoy shopping at WF. OTOH I don't like some of the actions I've read about with regard to WF. Suppose I'll go there less often.

"Rhodeside Grill To Reopen with Renovated Bar, New Menu to Follow" by Rachel Hatzipanagos in the Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn Patch Small Business Spotlight.

Having grown up down the road from Nutley, I would agree that fried bologna from Nutley, Nouveau Jersey is indeed a rare delicacy. I would be happy to put on my chef hat and prepare some for anyone at the going price of $800/serving. In fact if I rummage through the wine cellar I might find some vintage canned coke 1975, indeed a splendid year.

Oh lordie: Haven't thought about this for a while, but I flashed on several events from decades ago in my youth (when dope was cheap) and combining huge amts of dope with sometimes stolen lobster. Tres extravegent. Tres wrong on so many levels. But what debauchery LOL

Creating a Dining near Inner Harbor thread is worthwhile. A couple of weekends ago I was at Inner Harbor getting together with friends from Southeastern Pa. Inner Harbor is a natural meeting point. It was sort of ad hoc and we had to figure where to have late brunch/ lunch on a Sunday. We ended up at Phillips. Every part of it was great....except the food which was universally mediocre for all of us (about 6 with 6 different meals, appetizers, drinks, etc.) The food was eminently mediocre. Ambiance was terrific. Service was absolutely top notch. We were seated relatively close to the bar and the music and ambiance from the piano bar was terrific. Food though, ---> meh. Had we planned, had I had a go to thread....I'm sure we could have found a more fulfilling place to eat.

I was at the Starbucks at Pentagon City this morning while waves of customers were coming in for coffee/food before starting work, and for early morning coffee/food while at work. The waves of customers were intense. Long lines ensued. This particular Starbucks simply did a great job of responding to the particular needs and wants of their early morning customers. The staff stretched out behind the counter. A new staffer manned the microwave, preparing and nuking sandwiches. A staffer manned the line, taking orders, filling food orders from the counter and preparing some food. Two staffers worked the cash registers. Two staffers were preparing more complex morning drinks. At the end of one or more busy waves of customers the manager and the new staffer at the microwave high fived. More busy waves came in. The staff worked like a well oiled machine. Frankly I found it impressive. That Starbucks is very focused on meeting customer needs, and in this case its fast service. Its a chain; as big as they come in the food business. I tend to go to two starbucks most often, one near where I live and one near where I work most of the time and they both have great customer service. I have no idea if it is system wide. I do know they easily outperform so many other places, that might have dramatically terrific food, are owned by local folks, are neighborhood treasures, etc...but some of these places don't come close to meeting customer service needs during busy times, and some do. Restaurants that specialize in "fast food" or "semi fast food" are supposed to be set up for big rushes during mornings or lunches. Some accomplish this, some don't. Some local owners/managers incorporate speed and efficiency with absolutely terrific food, and some are less aware of this element. ( I think the Earl's in Clarendon has a very efficient staff). Anyway Kudos to this particular Starbucks for meeting customer needs.

From The Washington Post: Good reading on dive bars plus one of the all time best pics of dive bars from the movies: "What Is A Dive Bar? A Colloquy" by Tom Jackman

I've been busy on the web and knew I couldn't show, consider myself knowledgeable about bagels from cultural experience, but certainly not from knowledge about baking, and am wowwed by the results. Good job. I've got two new bagel places to try, with the one in Va being closer. For me the big learning experience was the need to get bagels when they're fresh. Just didn't know that. Maybe that is why I like them toasted. crusty on the outside, chewy inside. Ahhhhhhh.....that is bagel heaven. Great job.

Added strawberry to a coke zero the other day. Was blown away by the blast of strawberry aroma coming out of the machine. Cool machines with tremendous opportunities for diversity and a mixologists dream and sweet smelling syrups on top of it. ooooh baby!!!!

.....not an actor reading a yelp review...but a pretty common yelp review theme, nonetheless:

Reviews in general are an amazingly controversial web issue with endless side issues: Consider: fake positive reviews by the business fake negative reviews by competitors reviews for pay reviews meant to destroy a business in the most vile way reviews volume simply to up your ranking in search engines reviews used for spite and like this guy wants to use them reviews and threats made to take down a business for political purposes reviews artificially "crafted" by a review management/marketing team to sell your business based on faked reviews So many controversial issues connected to reviews. BTW: One of the big elements in internet dental marketing is the process of review solicitation, management, and presentation of those reviews. The whole review thing is a big can of worms. I do a lot of local Search engine optimizing for smb's. pretty active in it. Somewhat knowledgeable. I gave a recent presentation on a variety of topics including general stuff, some technical stuff and reviews. There were plenty of people with enough technical experience there to grasp on the technical aspects. But the thing that raised a lot of controversy, conversation, and raised people's blood pressure was reviews. Reviews make people NUTS.

That is rich. LOL I'll come

There was a restaurant that I reasonably liked, (which is no longer around) and wherein I liked the owners. But the danged plates were way too big for the little tables, always minimizing the utility and comfort of the restaurant experience. So as an adjunct to the comments about bad chairs, fat butts and overall comfort with the advise to test everything first before you start using it...do the same not just with the chairs but all the elements that make up the dining experience. Make sure the chairs and other elements that make up the space work right!!!! Test, test, test, test!!!

I used to lease retail and a lot of restaurant space. I believe you are right, Don. Nothing special about that location at all. Its a between spot. Between bigger population centers with more walk around traffic. OTOH, It might offer or might have offered better rental rate values or opportunities within a strip (Wilson Blvd) where retail rental rates in some areas have just soared over time. Really soared.