Steve Dolinksy, ABC’s Hungry Hound and food-guy-about town, once said something that really resonated with us. Discussing the unflattering habit of those blogger types to descend en masse on a restaurant in its early days and then smear its flaws all over the wild, untamed internet, he allied himself with the camp of “real” food writers. He clarified the difference:
It’s more common courtesy on the part of food writers to cut the owners some slack when they first open. Typically, a wait of a few weeks is standard, and most of the big time critics will visit at least twice, if not three times, before they’ll print a review.
Interesting, then, that he’s splashing his distaste for Tapas Valencia all over the interwebs. Audarshia at 312DD notices that the Dolinsker pans the newly opened small-plates restaurant not just on his Twitter (with a dig at Chicago Mag’s Penny Pollock, for good measure) but also on his Facebook status, where he says “Steve Dolinsky went to Tapas Valencia twice tonight: his first and last time.”
Thing is, with a soft open on February 20th (translated out of resto-speak, a “soft open” means that while the door’s unlocked and the kitchen’s open, they’re counting it as more of a dress rehearsal to the official unveiling) Tapas Valencia hardly qualifies under the Dolinsky Rule of Acceptable Reviewing Grace Periods. They’ve been running out of their current kitchen for a scant two weeks (only one, if you count from the official opening date).
And even using Dolinsky’s specious calculations, by which one meal possessing two attributes (first and last!) has been mathemagically transmogrified to two meals, that’s hardly the “twice, if not three times” for visits that he claims those “big time critics” rely on.
But hey, maybe he’s just finally owning up to the fact that he’s just a dirty blogger like all the rest of us, eh?
Sticking a fork in Tapas Valencia already?! [312DD]
Blog [Steve Dolinsky Official Site]
Vitriol: Steve Dolinsky Makes Us Really Angry [previously]
Tapas Valencia [MenuPages]
Tapas Valencia [Official Site]
