Reading Sam Sifton’s first restaurant review in the New York Times reminded me that I hadn’t shared details from the interesting conversation I had over coffee a few weeks ago with his predecessor, Frank Bruni (on tour for his book, Born Round), and Critic-to-Cook Leslie Kelly.  

We in the Ex Critics Club had a lot in common when it came to food (although Bruni, unlike me, said he never finds himself spearing food uninvited off the plates of friends; he had always passed around the dishes while doing his reviews). We all, in some ways, appreciated going out to eat more as civilians than we did when it was a job. In his first post-critic weeks at restaurants, Bruni enjoyed being “free to enjoy each of them according to my own mood, and my own terms, on the night I’m there.” But the big difference, of course, was that “I don’t think I’ve taken the accurate measure of any of those restaurants.” He wasn’t testing the corners of the menus, he wasn’t focusing on the food over the company, or making sure to sample a different dish than the time before.

Sifton will be doing that thorough work for the Times now, but not many others will. The number of newspapers and magazines who can afford to test a restaurant that way, “to explore and analyze…in an accurate and complete way,” is getting smaller all the time. (This was before we even heard of the death of Gourmet.) “I don’t yet see a sign that there’s going to be any halt of that, or reversal to that. Restaurant criticism is in big trouble purely in economic terms,” Bruni said.

Can the Yelps of the world fill in the gaps? “I can’t feel too optimistic about that.” It’s a potentially, wonderfully useful tool, but “you have no idea if these Yelpers are relatives of the chef, investors, (if they) did anything more than have the blue cheese burger and go on their way.” Consumers will need to cobble and patch together their own views from those itinererant sources.

I asked what Bruni thought about anonymity, which I’ve always believed is a crucial part of reviewing. He doesn’t think it’s as important as I do — and thinks “physical anonymity, in the digital age, is a long shot for any critic working more than a month.” (I don’t know — we’ve been pretty successful at laying low in Seattle — but perhaps we’d fare less well in the Manhattan fishbowl.)

He then made a point I don’t think I’ve heard articulated before (though he credited Eric Asimov with it), and which I hope other modern reviewers take up: Trying to stay anonymous still matters, whether you’re recognized or not. Don’t let a restaurant know you’re coming. Don’t accept public speaking engagements. Don’t accept free meals, or go to media restaurant parties or invite-only “friends and family” nights. To help preserve your autonomy, you make that clear statement to the industry that “you are not one of them.” 

Thoughts?

And, for the inevitable food questions, after our meetup at Caffe Umbria, Bruni was taken to a backroom lunch at Salumi, where he tweeted that “the “lardo lollipops” at Salumi in Seattle — grissini slicked with melting lardo — are the free snacks on Heaven’s bar.” That one, I would guess, is true whether they recognize you or not.

 

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