If you observe food writing in this town for long enough, you begin to notice certain patterns that make for an almost predictable cycle. For instance, assume that someone opens a new concept restaurant, say a high-end French-German fusion restaurant specializing in a frogs leg schnitzel. Here's what you can expect from the beginning of the 24 hour food-news cycle:
Day 1: EaterLA does a "Plywood" posting, reporting the concept and idea for this coming restaurant, gets location wrong and misspells name of proprietor.
Day 5: First Yelp review goes up of "soft opening," which turns out to be owner handing out some samples on the street.
Day 15: Restaurant opens.
Day 16: Yelp reviews start to rave about the place.
Day 22: J. Gold does a fly-by review for the LA Weekly praising the "delivery of a peasant food with an intensity usually reserved for Weimar-era German cinema."
Days 23-25: Three hundred LA food bloggers post about the restaurant.
Day 26: Reservations are now only available at 4:00 and 11:30.
Day 45: Backlash begins, the first Yelp posts go up calling the place overrated and overhyped. Others agree that they are "so over" this place.
Day 55: Grub Street reports on planned expansion with new location in Hollywood and roving food truck.
Day 172: Irene Virbala reviews in LAT and gives one and one-half stars.
Day 225: Restaurant closes.
Day 335: Squid Ink reports on concept and idea for a coming restaurant by same proprietor for casual schnitzel-on-a-stick stand in same location as former restaurant.
Repeat ad nauseum....
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2 comments:
Ha ha haaaa! My favorite part is: "peasant food with an intensity usually reserved for Weimar German Cinema" (now I have to look that up!).
...you made it even easier to leave LA now. Portland, here I come!
Very acutely observed. There's also the variant that goes like this:
Day 1: EaterLA does a "Plywood" posting
Day 65: EaterLA does an update, with a sob story from the owner about why the opening is taking longer than expected.
Day 75: EaterLA update about how the tables and chairs are now set up.
Day 85: EaterLA update about another delay due to last minute hitches with inspections.
. . .
You get the idea.
Also, I'd suggest the following addition to your Day 16:
Day 16: Chowhounders pounce, cataloging every opening jitter.
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