DR.com: Forum or Chatroom?

[DonRocks]

I don't think that the original post was problematic.

If there is something wrong with the original post, then I don't understand either the line between appropriate and innappropriate postings or the point of this board.

Jim, lackadaisi,

I didn't mean to imply I think the original post is problematic. Truly, all I was saying is that until David brought it up, I hadn't even given it a thought.

I'm trying to understand all the viewpoints here, and I feel no need to pass judgment, so I'm staying hands-off.

[speaking as moderator, I felt the conversation went beyond "Restaurant Kolumbia," so I moved it to this thread for lack of a better repository. I have not deleted any posts except for one which I felt crossed boundaries (I PMd the author and everything is fine).]

Cheers,

Rocks.

[bilrus]

This raises a point that maybe belongs in another thread, but how do people deal with reports of a restaurant, any restaurant, that does not match their own experience, so different that it seems to lack credibility?

Personally, I always trust my own opinion more than someone else's.

[mdt]

Could not have said it better myself, however I find that in the Blog enviornment, especially here at DR, it is hard for people to accept that people do not like DR fav's or had a bad experience. I have seen people slammed down and disregarded beucase of such comments. In a lot of respects I beleive issues are not fully doumented or expressed here becuase of the personal relationships with the staff or owners. In a lot of respects it changes the nature of this board to a social community rather then a true fourm on good food and eating.

Just my opinion and again I totally agree with your comments about subjectivity

I was just about to write the same thing. You have no idea how correct you are.

[synaesthesia]

Could not have said it better myself, however I find that in the Blog enviornment, especially here at DR, it is hard for people to accept that people do not like DR fav's or had a bad experience. I have seen people slammed down and disregarded beucase of such comments. In a lot of respects I beleive issues are not fully doumented or expressed here becuase of the personal relationships with the staff or owners. In a lot of respects it changes the nature of this board to a social community rather then a true fourm on good food and eating.

I would say that in some cases people are slammed because they don't have a history on the board, purposely come on to the board with the purpose of maliciously slamming a restaurant, and do not FULLY explain their issues with the restaurant. People do not get questioned when they say something positive about a restaurant because it is not damaging. If you're going to bash a restaurant, you should be prepared to back it up. No question there may be a number of folks who are in a chef's back pocket or for various reasons will hesitate to state their opinion.

And I don't think any place will be a "true forum on good food and eating", if as you have already prated on in the Chinese food thread that taste is relative. No doubt that is true. But I don't even know what "true forum" really means. We all have biases. To come here with any other expectation is delusional. But the beauty of it being a social community is that you begin to recognize who shares your tastes and who doesn't. And you learn whose opinion you trust, and whose you do not.

[Heather]

No question there may be a number of folks who are in a chef's back pocket or for various reasons will hesitate to state their opinion.

And those who are in a chef's back pocket and don't hesitate to give their opinion anyway.

[danfishe]

So sports bar should automatically equal crappy service?

Quoted from the Wash Post: It's a little distracting for a bar that has grand culinary ambitions. Thirsty Bernie aims to be more than just a place to knock back a few beers. The chef is Jamie Stachowski, formerly of Restaurant Kolumbia, who made a name for himself downtown with homemade charcuterie and sausages. "The whole idea is that it's pub food but at a higher level. I don't have the mental fortitude to do fine dining," Stachowski says with a sigh. "I want something fun right now."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8062400471.html

From the handful of grumblings here and my own limited experience (aka one visit with medicore food) Bernie is a work in progress, but it is a place that appears to have high aspirations, which apparently are not currently being met in its young life, hopefully any issues are fixed soon. In the Post article Jamie is quoted as saying he wants to get things "shipshape" for a July 4th's "Grand Opening"...that's one short week away.

Jamie might have high stature on DR but lets not get all sacred cow.

Honestly I can't figure out why I'm not supposed to relate my actual experience--i.e. the food has the potential to be great but there are serious service issues. I went in the other saturday, there were 3 other people at the bar, took the bartender 7 minutes to ask my if I wanted anything b/c she was busy chatting with preferred customers. If we can't relate our actual experiences b/c Jamie is one of the "DR Blessed" then might as well lock this thread along with Ray's and move on to discussing somewhere we are allowed to criticize.

[pizza man]

Honestly I can't figure out why I'm not supposed to relate my actual experience--i.e. the food has the potential to be great but there are serious service issues. I went in the other saturday, there were 3 other people at the bar, took the bartender 7 minutes to ask my if I wanted anything b/c she was busy chatting with preferred customers. If we can't relate our actual experiences b/c Jamie is one of the "DR Blessed" then might as well lock this thread along with Ray's and move on to discussing somewhere we are allowed to criticize.

like Bebo!

[qwertyy]

Honestly I can't figure out why I'm not supposed to relate my actual experience--i.e. the food has the potential to be great but there are serious service issues. I went in the other saturday, there were 3 other people at the bar, took the bartender 7 minutes to ask my if I wanted anything b/c she was busy chatting with preferred customers. If we can't relate our actual experiences b/c Jamie is one of the "DR Blessed" then might as well lock this thread along with Ray's and move on to discussing somewhere we are allowed to criticize.

I kind of agree with you Dan. I feel like over the last several months this has become more and more about one-liners, inside jokes, and now-you-see-them/now-you-don't posts than about an exchange about food and the restaurant business. I guess everything that needs to be discussed has been discussed?

[Waitman]

Although I often side with the critical party in individual discussions (I often am the critical party, or was, before Exxon took my meal money), and absolutely stand for the right to tip even the most sacred of cows, I am surprised how often people feel free to take a few bare-knuckled swings at an establishment without considereing that they are eligible for the same treatment themselves. I believe that it was the famed cookie chef Hillary Clinton who recently (in hommage to that eminent connisseur of St. Louis barbeque, Hank Truman) pointed out the relationship between heat and kitchens, in suggesting that those uncomfortable with the former avoid the latter.

[pizza man]

Ah, but it is all to easy for anonymous dickweeds (whatever happened to that thread) with some sort of grudge to bear, or who know what, to come on these forums, sign up and immediately slam a rival, ex-lover, former employer, or whomever.

A while back there was a poster named Juventino. They were taking cheap shots at me about some pizza tastings I had done for a personal acquaintance, oddly enough, they had not even tasted the pizza. (well, maybe some cold, half eaten leftovers...) Still don't know who it was, even after inquiring in a personal message. They haven't been posting lately. Strange.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Thirsty Bernie thing was of the same nature.

Anyway, everything written here needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

It is a great forum, but it is not the final word.

[StephenB]

It would be helpful if we had a mission statement from Mr. Rockwell. Don, we have a very interesting but amorphous organism here. Like Topsy, it just growed. Where would you like to position it in the spectrum between PR and journalism?

[DonRocks]

It would be helpful if we had a mission statement from Mr. Rockwell. Don, we have a very interesting but amorphous organism here. Like Topsy, it just growed. Where would you like to position it in the spectrum between PR and journalism?

I've been winging this whole thing for 3+ years and I'm still winging it.

Ever since encountering the knights who say "ni," I've developed a visual reflex to screen those letters out of things I read. With this in mind, I did a double-take on "amorphous organism."

[synaesthesia]

I would also like to point out that Chef Jamie attracted quite a flurry of comments on DCist when I wrote a story about Restaurant Kolumbia. Whether or not the comments at the time were true, the person who made them felt it necessary to run around complaining about an issue that happened two years earlier, which I view to be a little unfair. From what I was told, this person was doing this all over the internet. Could it be the same person? It's possible. The fact that it was the person's first post, he/she came out swinging, AND has yet to respond implies a hit-and-run.

P.S. I am 100% for sacred cow-tipping. Harkens back to my rural upbringing.

[agm]

Honestly I can't figure out why I'm not supposed to relate my actual experience--i.e. the food has the potential to be great but there are serious service issues. I went in the other saturday, there were 3 other people at the bar, took the bartender 7 minutes to ask my if I wanted anything b/c she was busy chatting with preferred customers. If we can't relate our actual experiences b/c Jamie is one of the "DR Blessed" then might as well lock this thread along with Ray's and move on to discussing somewhere we are allowed to criticize.

Oh, come on. Are you serious? I don't think anything you've posted about Thirsty Bernie's has been inappropriate, and I haven't seen anybody suggesting otherwise. Why do you think you're not supposed to relate your actual experience? Of course you are. Go re-read the thread. Nobody's objecting to anything you've said. You encountered problems with service. You didn't come here to bitch about it, but you reported it, and that's fine. Others have reported both positive and negative experiences, and that's not just OK, that's the whole point.

But then some person chose to make his first ever post on this board a long slam of the restaurant, anonymously, and with no indication of having taken up his problems with the management and given them a chance to resolve them before trashing the place publicly. People reacted negatively to that post. It seems a perfectly reasonable reaction to me, and is in no way a reflection on you or your posts, and in no way an indication that Jamie is part of the "DR Blessed" and you can't tell the truth about his restaurant.

[Keithstg]

But then some person chose to make his first ever post on this board a long slam of the restaurant, anonymously, and with no indication of having taken up his problems with the management and given them a chance to resolve them before trashing the place publicly. People reacted negatively to that post. It seems a perfectly reasonable reaction to me, and is in no way a reflection on you or your posts, and in no way an indication that Jamie is part of the "DR Blessed" and you can't tell the truth about his restaurant.

With rare, rare exception (only one that I can think of) those who make their first post a vague teardown of a restaurant like you describe above tend to move on after the first post and add nothing of value. Whether directed at a sacred cow or not, these one-off posts are trolls, and should be viewed as such. I don't think anyone objected to your comments as much as they did the ones that came after, Danfishe. I highly doubt we'll hear from the other party again....oh well. You'll find stuff like this on an internet BB. Sadly, some trolls come with the territory.