Review #2 - Trummer's on Main

[DonRocks]

This will be a list of restaurants that will be turned into a poll. After the list has been completed, we will vote on the poll, and the restaurant who gets the most votes will be reviewed with my best effort. 
 
Since it takes members who have written 10 posts to suggest a restaurant (the same ones who have access to our Dining Guide), I'm going to ask as many members as possible with 10 posts to suggest a restaurant they'd like to have reviewed.
 
All restaurants in the previous poll will roll over into this poll, so there's no need to re-nominate them.
 
Thank you to our wonderful participating members for all you've done for this community.

 
Cheers,
Rocks

[JSnake]

The newly renovated Cedar Knoll. It used to be an absolute dump. Everything was pre-cooked and thrown in plastic containers and reheated in a microwave. It's under completely new management now and the difference is drastic. We had Easter dinner here and had a fantastic time. Our food was expertly cooked, the service was efficient but also knew when to stay away. Plus we had a great view of the lake and a cozy fireplace near our table.

[silentbob]

Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana, mostly because (1) it's the restaurant in Italics closest to our house, and (2) the wait is too long anytime we've tried to eat there.

[DonRocks]

I'll close new suggestions at around 2 PM today, and turn it into Poll #2. As before, don't worry if your restaurant didn't get in this time - you can probably see by now that there will (hopefully be many chances). In each poll, all restaurants will start with zero votes, so unfortunately, voting on all restaurants is something you'll need to do each time - I'm kind of doing this as a reward for our regular members (I'm not sure you can call it a rewards, but whatever it is, I'm doing it for our regular members).

I fear when Pineapple and Pearls opens.

Members like JSnake who nominate a different restaurant each time (well, so far he's only done two) are going to end up getting a lot of their restaurants reviewed in the long term - that's okay with me. Even though he disses me about sous-vide, he's a wonderful member and a dear friend.

This is important, so please focus: I look at the way we're doing this process as a prototype for the way we'll be selecting our awards: 1) our members submit a list of categories, and then 2) I'll take that list and make a poll, and our members will vote on which categories they'd like to see as awards. Note: This is just to determine the award categories; not to determine the actual restaurants nominated; that will be a separate thing altogether, to come later in the year. But I also see *that* process as being something like this process too - this is kind-of how James Beard does it, and it seems to work pretty well. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to hand-select a voting committee, or if all members who have posted a certain number of times will get a vote - does anyone have any suggestions about this? (I may move this discussion to another thread if it gets too big).

Anyway, keep nominating restaurants up until 2 PM today.

Cheers,

Rocks

[Bart]

As much as I'd like to see you do Cedar Knoll* since it's in my 'hood, I'm going to nominate Graffiato.

I've really enjoyed every meal I've had there, but I've seen a lot of negative comments over the years about Mike Isabella and one semi-recent one along the lines of "notice how long it's been since anyone mentioned Graffiato?" I'd like to get your fresh take.

* even though I'm nominating Graffiato, I may end up voting for Cedar Knoll for selfish reasons! (but I don't think it is anywhere near as good as Graffiato)

[Bart]

I fear when Pineapple and Pearls opens.

Ditto for the Shaw Bijou!

[LauraB]

I'd like to nominate Trummers on Main.

[DonRocks]

Which of these restaurants do you want to see reviewed? Remember that it's no big deal if your restaurants don't win, since they'll simply roll over into the next poll.

Poll will close on Sunday at 7 PM.

[Bart]

Conspicuously absent is my nominee of Graffiato.

Challenge flag thrown!

[DonRocks]

Conspicuously absent is my nominee of Graffiato.

Challenge flag thrown!

Caught.

It's as good a time as any to mention that there are a maximum of three questions with ten answers each, so the most we can ever have going at one time is thirty restaurants (there may be a setting I can change - I'd have to look).

Graffiato was our 11th restaurant, and the software made me put at least 2 choices per question - hence, Trummer's moving down. The bars aren't relevant; only the numbers.

And I assumed you aren't trying to send me to Richmond.

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Edit: Yes, there was a setting I could change.

[reedm]

I attempted to change my vote to Graffiato, but I received this error message:

Oops! Something went wrong!

[#10355]

You must cast your vote in each question of the poll.

Did I make a mistake, or is this a known glitch?

[DonRocks]

I attempted to change my vote to Graffiato, but I received this error message:

Oops! Something went wrong!

[#10355]

You must cast your vote in each question of the poll.

Did I make a mistake, or is this a known glitch?

It's an unknown glitch, most likely because there were originally two questions, and I figured out a way to condense them into one by changing some settings (but that wasn't until after the topic was started). It won't happen in future polls, but it's unlikely that I'll be able to fix this by this evening. I verified that what you say is occurring in the general case, and reported it to Invision as a bug, but I doubt it will be fixed by 5 PM.

This also brings up the issue of what to do in case of a tie. Tell you what: If there's a tie, I'll do a random-number generator "coin toss" - if I could have a volunteer that can be "on call" on short notice, that seems like as good a way as any. (Anyone want to volunteer? Please write me - it needs to be someone who's fairly accessible, either on the website or via email. Or, I suppose you all could trust me to do this myself. )

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Edit: As I figured, it's a bug, and not practical to fix for this one, particular case. It won't be an issue going forward. Here's Invision's reply (as usual, they were timely and thoughtful):

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Hi Don,

I can see how this could happen, unfortunately this would fall under 'advanced support' for IP.Board 3 which has recently ended. Basic support will also cease on the 1st June 2016.

I would recommend upgrading to IPS4. If you would like to proceed with an upgrade, we can take care of this for you.

Regards,

Stuart Silvester

Invision Power Services, Inc.

[DonRocks]

Trummer's on Main

Do note that since this review was written, Trummer's Chef de Cuisine has departed, and gone to Proof.

Edited May 14, 2016 by DonRocks