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THE GOOD WORD Vol. 12: Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
THE GOOD WORD Vol. 12: Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer
The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We're going to start by highlighting the city's many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.
In this installment of The Good Word, we're chatting with a guy who needs little introduction: It's Craig LaBan, who's been the restaurant critic for the Inquirer since 1998. We had a quite a few things we wanted to ask Craig, so we super-sized this week's Good Word to seven questions.
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We all know you love Philly � but what was your honest reaction when you heard Frank Bruni would be leaving his critic's post at the New York Times? Any fleeting moments where you pictured yourself trading in bells for stars, a la Ryan Howard pondering how he'd look like in pinstripes?
What hungry food writer hasn�t fantasized � at least for a moment � about feasting across the five boroughs on a New York Times expense account? I've lived in New York and it's among my favorite places in the world. It certainly is one of the most exciting, diverse eating cities anywhere. But filling the critic's spot at the Times is definitely one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for jobs, with 10 times the pressure and scrutiny of any other restaurant critic position in this country � and a ramped-up eating schedule to go with it. I think it would be an awesome challenge, but there�s a reason few people have lasted in that seat longer than five years. Gourmet burnout. I like seeing my family too much to imagine how that scenario would work in real life. It makes me appreciate how liveable our city is. Good thing NYC is just a couple hours away � that way I get to taste the Apple whenever I want, and come home to Philly, where I belong.
Is there one particular review (or several) in your memory that earned notable blowback from your readers? Why do you think that was, and how did you deal with the response?
Blowback is part of the job description when you get to spout your own opinions in the Sunday paper ever week, and I typically just let people vent. I get my say. But there have definitely been some standout protests, and some were no surprise, like the old-school venom that flowed (by certified letter to my publisher and editor) demanding penance after my No Bell review of Old Original Bookbinder's [in 1999]. But some were definitely unexpected, like the readers who were offended that I�d complain about river rats running around my balcony table at the Water Works (�What, you got a problem with wildlife? What�s next with you: squirrels and birds?�)� The flap that most surprised me, though, followed my four-bell review of Django. I have no regrets there � in its heyday, Django was the height of our BYOB movement and one of the best eating experiences in the city bar none. But so many people just couldn�t wrap their minds around an elite ranking for a place that didn�t sell wine. I never had a real sense of some people�s resistance to BYO�s until then.
Have you noticed your children developing any food critic-y traits?
I have two kids, and they�ve both been going to restaurants since they were in car seats under the table. So they�ve been exposed to some culinary wonders most kids haven�t, and they can slurp soup dumplings like Chinatown experts and find their way around a whole fish. But they�ve each developed very individual approaches to food � which is always a nice reminder to me how children�s tastes are still so pure. Arthur, my 7-year-old, is the more traditional kid eater of the two. He likes to call himself the �Chicken Finger Critic� in the family � and he isn�t afraid to throw around the bells. My 10-year-old daughter, Alice, meanwhile, is the more adventurous eater � she�s a pickle fanatic, has been known to strip a rack of lamb down to bare bones, and will polish off a bowl of sawagani (tiny deep-fried Japanese creek crabs) like they were popcorn. She�s also become very interested in cooking � she�s now my best sous-chef for holiday meals � it�s something we share together, and that makes me happy.
What are some of the most egregious mistakes you see new restaurants making when you visit for the first time?
I really appreciate a pioneer, a place that dares to bring ambition to a neighborhood that�s yet to have a star dining room. But as a restaurateur, you also have to be savvy about what an area will support both in style and price. You don�t want to turn off the locals before you�ve even opened your doors by outpricing your clientele. It�s just basic market research. Very few unknown chefs can transform a Nowheresville location into a destination based on talent alone. It�s just not sustainable � especially in this economy. So I worry about some new places that have debuted with entr�e prices in the high $20s (in West Philly, Wash West, and NoLibs), and I haven�t even eaten at these places yet! Aside from that, the biggest mistakes in most restaurants � not just new ones - are usually service related. And it starts the moment a potential customer calls to make that reservation. Restaurateurs have no idea how much business they lose with just one rude reservationist answering the phones.
Do you follow any particular protocol if you suspect you've been outed during a review meal? Or do you just go with it?
Just go with it. I�ve been dealing with this almost since the beginning of my career in New Orleans. There are so many pictures of me out there (almost from the first months I got here), that it�s kind of been my default assumption that at least half the restaurants know I�m there at least during one of my visits. As always, my visits are unannounced, and I avoid engaging in a personal way with the restaurant staff. But absolute anonymity is in reality impossible to maintain. It always was. But it�s especially impossible now in the internet age (and not just for me, restaurateurs say, but for critics at the alt-weeklies, and even bloggers who�ve just gotten a reputation for being cranks on Yelp.) This just obliges you to be a better reporter and better eater: pay close attention to the food, which can�t be faked; engage the servers in ways to learn how good they really are; be aware of the service given to those around you; and take very good notes. Experience is also really helpful. Egregiously fawning service is just too obvious to miss. And after eating 400 to 500 restaurant meals a year in Philly for the past decade, I think I�ve developed a pretty accurate and consistent sense of where a restaurant sits: it�s pretty much impossible to transform a mediocre place into a great one in a flash just because a critic�s walked in.
Do you think promotions like Restaurant Week, where turning tables is often job one, help or hurt a restaurant's reputation with new diners? While the price is right, some feel that cranked-out prix-fixe food is not a true representation of a kitchen's ability.
Restaurant Week is a blessing and a curse. It gets people to visit places they might never have tried. But at the same time, I think diners often go with unrealistic expectations into situations � with mass-produced menus built for a quick turn - where few restaurants are prepared to do their best. That�s a shame. But it might be changing for the better. The restaurants that take it seriously as a loss leader can really win some new customers, and I�m seeing more effort towards that � places that are giving some real values with more than three courses, and menus that offer more wider, interesting selections than simply the cheap ends of their menus (chicken, salmon � ). The recession, I think, has taught everyone that there isn�t an opportunity to waste.
At the end of every year you do your "Year in Bells," where some restaurants have an opportunity to improve on low ratings. What factors influence which places are worthy of revisits? For example, is a restaurant with one bell more likely to get a revisit if you see potential, as opposed to a two-bell place that's hoping for three?
These reviews have a lasting effect, so I do my best to get them right � and that includes some end-of-year adjustments to reflect changes and improvement. There are always occasions where I sense a restaurant just didn�t perform up to its capabilities during the initial review, or they were still working things out. If it really has a decent chance of bumping up to the next level (or if I�ve heard a place is slipping, and might need to step down), my year-end revisits are the moment to give another chance before the Year in Bells is sealed. Beyond that, full re-reviews are rare. Of course, I only have the time and budget for about five of these each year, so not everyone gets a second chance this time around.
Another fabulous installment of the good word! Will we be reading about Phyllis Stein-Novack next week?
Wow - a good read. Thanks Meal Ticket, thanks Mr. LaBan.
Nice job Drew. Craig is a discerning guy. I was surprised Craig felt that yelp, a soapbox that panders to the common idiot, draws concern from restauranteurs. http://phillymarketcafe.blogspot.com/2009/02/yelp-philly.html
Thanks for reading!
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