Do "Food Paparazzi" spoil the restaurant scene?

[Rail Paul]

There's an interesting article in Nation's Restaurant News about how the Philadelphia restaurant owners have managed the food paparazzi / bloggers in their city. It seems that some restaurants view people who want to photograph and discuss their food as a plus for the house. In some cases, the restaurants have created videos of their meals, chefs preparing these meals, etc to further "set the table" for prospective diners

 

Food paparazzi have not yet spoiled the Philadelphia restaurant scene, say local restaurant owners, chefs and publicists.

 

"I think people who say [it is a problem], maybe they're just uptight," said Andrew Masciangelo, executive chef at Savona, where people so enthused about their food that they want to photograph and blog about it during their meals have not had a noticeable impact.

 

"Like anything else, you just have to have good manners," said Terry Berch, co-owner of Philadelphia's London Grill. Customers do photograph their meals there, Berch added, but it has yet to create a disturbance.

 

Bruce Cooper, owner and executive chef of Jake's and Cooper's, has found that food bloggers are giving his eateries online publicity.

 

"Everyone's a reviewer now," Cooper said. "I've liked everything I've seen. One I didn't like, but I was able to address the individual and fix the problem."

 

The ability to interact with customers one-on-one and address their concerns is one benefit that local restaurateurs see in food blogging. The publicity is another.

 

"Word of mouth makes or breaks a business," said Scott Stein, of Peter Breslow Consulting, a public relations firm that has put new media to work for its clients.

 

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/offthewire.aspx?menu_id...8#ixzz0nTeZX1jr

 

Off the wire

[fentona]

"I think people who say [it is a problem], maybe they're just uptight," said Andrew Masciangelo, executive chef at Savona, where people so enthused about their food that they want to photograph and blog about it during their meals have not had a noticeable impact.

 

Maybe I read the wrong blogs, but I've never seen a single blog entry about any of these restaurants. The London Grill is something of an institution; Savona is totally off my radar screen; and I'd never even heard of Jake's or Cooper's. So, yeah, it's not hard for me to imagine that the blogarazzi haven't affected these restaurants much.

 

One wonders why the reporter (this evidently originally appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News) chose to interview the restaurateurs she did.

[nuxvomica]

heh, i know a bunch of chefs who refuse to comment for stories like this

 

[Wilfrid]

Notice the pejorative use of language here - "paparazzi" in the headline and the article lead, but the term not attributed as a direct quote.

[jas.]

Maybe I read the wrong blogs, but I've never seen a single blog entry about any of these restaurants. The London Grill is something of an institution; Savona is totally off my radar screen; and I'd never even heard of Jake's or Cooper's. So, yeah, it's not hard for me to imagine that the blogarazzi haven't affected these restaurants much.

 

One wonders why the reporter (this evidently originally appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News) chose to interview the restaurateurs she did.

 

 

jake's and cooper's are in manayunk, fwiw

[fentona]

jake's and cooper's are in manayunk, fwiw

 

That's shurely part of the issue. The food blog set interacts with the suburban diner set; but they don't interact much with the drunken frat boy set.