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Burger bar in beef with blogger
By adamg on Fri, 04/20/2012 - 3:30pm
So Richard Chudy, the Boston Burger Guy, raved about the burger at the Citizen Pub on Boylston Street, finding fault only with the bun.
An outraged David A. DuBois, CEO of the Franklin Group, which owns both the pub and Tasty Burger, replied by calling Chudy an asshole and saying he'd like to meet him in person to drive the point home even more.
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Comments
DuBois has a history of this
He's a terrific restaurateur -- I'm a big fan of the Franklins and The Citizen, and like the Tasty -- but he has long been notorious for overreacting to pro and amateur critics alike in a way that doesn't help his business. This gets him another big fat F in Restaurant Social Media 101.
Citizen Pub brouhaha
I, too, am a big fan of both Franklin Café and Citizen Pub. As far as vibe and food and knowledgeability of staff go, they're the rare resto group in Boston that "gets it." There are few (maybe no) outfits in town, however, who respond more immaturely to media—especially social media—criticism. Not just the principal himself. Almost seems institutionalized as a philosophy. It's a shame.
Wow!
MC Slim JB and Joylon. We're getting a who's who of the area's reviewers. Devra and Nadeau, where are you?
I'm not sure it's limited to social media.
I've had horrific service from hipster doofus bartenders at citizen.
me too. its the only bar in
me too. its the only bar in boston that i have sworn to never return to because i dont want to give them another dime.
Richard Chudy is an asshat
Richard Chudy is an asshat wannabe moron. He thinks that because he has some bullshit culinary "degree" from a joke of an institution that he actually knows anything about cooking Anne food. His catering business is a joke, too. I've met him a few times, and as someone who works in actual kitchens (not fake ones like Dick) let me tell you that most people around the city in the industry think he is a joke. He has just done a good job marketing and cozying up to the right people. He is basically the Phantom Gourmet, and if anyone takes his reviews seriously, then they are idiotic.
Thank you for the appearance
Thank you for the appearance Mr. DuBois.
Go back to your hole, troll.
This Fat
bastered is a slob and an A-hole. PS Tasty Burger sux's
So does that mean that Mr.
So does that mean that Mr. Chudy should be subjected to threats of violence because he dared to state his opinion on the quality of a baked good? WTF? I'll never spend another nickel at Tasty Burger.
I'd be scared
Mr. DuBois might give me a one-two punch with his chins. Those sandbags would totally knock you out.
Erm...
So if he's a joke, why go to the trouble of flipping out on him? I don't know the guy--I feel pretty qualified to judge my own burgers without outside help--and I like Citizen and Tasty Burger a lot, but this seems awfully thin-skinned, especially for a score of 86. This is like those kids who come up to the teacher and whine for an A instead of an A-.
Whoever you are, you're
Whoever you are, you're taking a very low road. To offend all of those that have received that "bullshit degree" is disrespectful to those that work really hard to receive this distinction, myself included. A lot of very talented chefs have graduated from there and have gone on to be very successful in the industry. It seems like you have personal issues with the burger blogger, but to be so ignorant as to offend an entire group of people is uncalled for. From the sound of it, you consider yourself quite the expert but yet you're so quick to attack not only this blogger, his personal business and an entire population of people that work really hard to do what they do, none of which have anything to do with the issue up for discussion. Think before you type, asshat.
PS, who says asshat?
Whoever you are, you're
Whoever you are, you're taking a very low road. To offend all of those that have received that "bullshit degree" is disrespectful to those that work really hard to receive this distinction, myself included. A lot of very talented chefs have graduated from there and have gone on to be very successful in the industry. It seems like you have personal issues with the burger blogger, but to be so ignorant as to offend an entire group of people is uncalled for. From the sound of it, you consider yourself quite the expert but yet you're so quick to attack not only this blogger, his personal business and an entire population of people that work really hard to do what they do, none of which have anything to do with the issue up for discussion. Think before you type, asshat.
PS, who says asshat?
I had you until the last sentence, asshat
.
Haha boo hoo. Sorry that you
Haha boo hoo. Sorry that you wasted all your time and money on an education you could have got in a summer job. Culinary School is the biggest scam going. Any chef that has gone on to become successful did it by their own accord, and not by paying tens of thousands of dollars to learn how to make mayonnaise and buere blanc. You and Dick Chud can go on pretending that your "degree" lends you any credibility. I'll sit back with the rest of the world and know that it doesn't. If the Chud wants some real credibility, then he should probably get a job cooking real food in a real kitchen. Not going around the city getting getting comped burgers by writing favorable reviews.
You have no idea what you're talking about
...and that is the biggest difference between someone who has gone to culinary school and someone who has learned by working in a kitchen. I know quite a few people from both walks of life.
The biggest difference I notice between the two groups is that someone who learned everything in the kitchens they've worked in often has a limited knowledge of what works and what doesn't. They often have not developed a sense of taste or qualified imagination for how flavors can be rearranged to develop something new and wonderful from a fully stocked pantry. They have no theory behind their cooking, only their past experience.
Those that go to culinary school are trained heavily not only in how to cook...but how to create. They can imagine a combination of flavors, textures, smells...and then put it to action. Any idiot can use a knife or put a perfect sear on a piece of meat...but I find far more that come from culinary schools can dream up an entire menu that melds together perfectly while the "hard knocks" chefs often fall back on those things they've only experienced for themselves.
This is not to say that there aren't heavily exposed "hard knocks" chefs or even chefs who didn't go to culinary school who can outperform some of those that did. Distributions of talent have a bell curve, including the talent of those that finish culinary school and those that only ever worked in a kitchen. However, the distribution of those that went to culinary school will always outperform the "hard knocks" chefs as a group vs. group comparison.
I'm also a strong believer that a degree from a formal education does lend you credibility more so than a "hard knocks" education. As an outside observer, I can know the quality of knowledge that the professors of that education impart on each of the people that pass out their doors. If I can know that you received that quality of instruction purely by your degree, that is the fundamental definition of credibility. I will only be wrong if you are part of that minor tail of the distribution that failed to absorb what you were taught.
However, without determining the quality of every person you learned from, and your own ability to self-teach, and how hard you strive to improve your cooking, I can make no valid prejudgement of your skills as a chef if you didn't go to culinary school. You have no credibility until you prove all of these things to me. Again, I will only be wrong about you if you are part of the minor tail of the talent distribution that extends up into the range of those that went to culinary school. Of course, at that point, I'll be wondering why you didn't want to learn from some of the best teachers by attending a school to formalize your education and fill in any gaps that you had not yet even realized you had.
Lmao did you cut and paste
Lmao did you cut and paste that bullshit from the brochure?
Btw, the percentage of the best chefs in the world who went to culinary school is pretty low. Meanwhile, crappy catering companies and hotel chains are packed with service cooks trying to pay down their insane amount of debt from their farce of an institution. Keller, Bras, Adria, Redzepi, Robuchon, Rippert, Bottura, Ducasse etc... Don't have the ability to formulate flavors as well as some culinary school douche like Bobby Flay, right? Lmao. And their kitchens that are filled with mostly staggieres with no academic training, yeah they can't formulate those flavors either.
Again, sorry that you wasted your money and bought into the scam bullshit that is culinary school. But the next time you are trying to find someone that doesn't know what they are talking about, look at yourself...or maybe Dick Chud.
Proving you don't know what you're talking about
In 1995, 58% of a bunch of top chefs in Europe and the US went to culinary school ( http://cookingcareer.shawguides.com/pages/survey.html ). Got newer or different numbers? Feel free to show them. Talking out of your ass isn't getting you anywhere. Another article in the LA Times talking about chefs not going to culinary school talked to a kitchen where the head chef/owner said he wouldn't recommend anyone going to a culinary school...then they asked him how many in his kitchen had gone to one...14 of 15 had.
I didn't go to culinary school; I only said I know many who have (as well as many good chefs who haven't). It's not as cut and dry as you think it is. It never is. Of course, you can keep acting like you know everything anyways. That's always been the hallmark of a chef. Sorry, did I say hallmark? I meant stereotype. It's actually just the hallmark of a douchebag.
In the meantime, your total criticism of Richard Chudy is that he has a degree from a culinary school. I'm pretty sure that instantly makes him a better critic than you by default. Why don't you try proving you're more than just a hate-spewing moron and point out what he's gotten wrong on, well, anything. Otherwise, the dishes are piling up, get back to work.
I personally have known Rich
I personally have known Rich for a while and have cooked with him on and off a couple years ago and you'd be hard pressed to find someone as passionate as he is about what he does. To say that he hasn't worked the line before and that makes him a joke makes it apparent that you're just grabbing at straws because, for whatever reason, you've got a personal problem with this guy. In my opinion, it's you that's got the problem, taking your time to make up a false name to publicly be so crude to someone who "you've met a couple of times", you think you know someone's whole story. It's people like you that make this world tough for those that work hard day in and day out. Your so quick to judge his capabilities when it sounds like you've never even sampled his food before, another unfair statement you've made. Degree/no degree working the line/ not working the line, it doesn't matter. As long as you are dedicated to making great food and being fair about it, than you're good in my book. Whatever reason you have to not like Rich doesn't give you the excuse to berate his business and an entire group of culinary professionals.
Krista Kranyak has this problem too
When Yelpers were critiquing the long waits, miniscule burgers, stupid-high prices, chairs that were falling apart so badly they were dangerous, and more problems at Grass Fed (despite several "soft" openings), Krista quipped on Twitter that "twitter is where the REAL foodies are, NOT YELP"
https://twitter.com/grassfedjp/statuses/1855853130...
http://www.yelp.com/biz/grass-fed-boston
So basically, if you complain about legitimate problems, you're insulted (although honestly, anyone that calls themselves a "foodie" is pretty much a pretentious prick, but I digress.)
Read the reviews and see no end of complaints about how expensive, small, and over-cooked the burgers are.
That is total BS
and no, I'm not Krista or a Friend of Krista or involved in any way, just an enthusiast who had my first Grassfed burger last night. They did not have "several" soft openings and her tweet was hardly a freak out--more of a humorous observation of what most of us already know--that the opinion of some entitled 22-year-old, written within a week of a restaurants' opening isn't worth the electrical power it took to charge their iPhone while they typed. Honestly...just skimming those reviews is like being stabbed by an idiot with a butter knife--death by morons. Then again, you sound as if you have some personal beef--no pun intended. Luckily there are lots of burger joint around for all of us.
actually, they DID
I saw the place full of people a week or two before they "really" opened, and then the day before their first official opening, they opened mid-to-late evening.
Look, I'm sorry, but I HAVE eaten there (2 weeks after the opening, when I was finally able to get in there), and the comments are all true. It is indisputable that:
-a meal is stupidly expensive, bordering on $20 for a non-alcoholic drink, burger, and fries. On Tuesdays, you can get table service, a beer and a significantly larger, cooked-to-order burger next door at Ten Tables for $14.
-the burgers are not cooked to order
-the burgers are TINY, significantly smaller than the buns they're served on. Mine was covered in gristle from the griddle and I could barely tell where the gristle ended and the burger began. They are, as multiple yelp commenters noted, "slider" size.
-half the chairs felt like they were falling apart (probably fixed by now)
-there is, in fact, no place to sit, because the only seating is around the outside edges - the bar, and counter space at the windows. That was no doubt done to make the place look busier than it usually is.
The apologists have responded to these complaints with "what do you expect when they just opened"? Answer: from someone who has run two high-end restaurants for years and staffed Grass Fed heavily from staff from Ten Tables, and at the price point they've targeted: far better. The first week I spent several minutes standing in front of the cash register until someone finally noticed me and told me that there was a 45 minute wait. Not for your food, but just to place an order.
They don't do takeout because they don't have a license. We know. Whose fault is that? It's absurd the city requires a separate license for it...but if you DECIDED not to get a license, then just say so!
Grass Fed's problem is that it has Krista's "you should be glad we're letting you in the door to eat here" attitude. Anyone remember how the answering machine at TT used to sound?
Thank you
For confirming every opinion I already had about people who write or trust idiotic Yelp reviews. You've been there once, and on that basis you can confirm that "the comments are all true" and that ail of your opinions are "indisputable" including that "half the chairs" were falling apart--did you sit in more than one chair, let alone half of them? Your burger was "covered in gristle from the grill"--do you even know what gristle is? And the kicker--they're trying to make the place look more crowded than it is? Um...half of your Yelp buddies complaints are based on the long wait or the fact that they couldn't get in--you can't have it both ways. And again, the signs say--they are waiting for a takeout license. Its coming, OK? Anyway, sorry to disappoint, since you really do seem to have an agenda, but they seem to be doing just fine. My burger was delicious. It was not the size of a slider and it was not smaller than the bun. I'm happy to add it to the neighborhood roster. If you want to go elsewhere for your burger, feel free.
what, you want wikipedia citations?
It took me three tries to find a chair that I could sit in. When I commented as such, the people next to me said they had the same problem.
Would you like a thesis defense on this?
Maybe it's because you're soft
Maybe you're just a fatass. Hardly the establishment's fault.
You also sound like you're just going to keep crying about this. Cry, Yelp crybaby, cry. All it takes is one five-star review to cancel out your voice completely.
Too funny...
I love that there was "no place to sit" and yet apparently there were three free chairs for you to try out. Seriously--just keep digging, pal. My main point--and let's just stick to this question of the chairs for a sec--this is why a professional reviewer, or even a fair and sensible amateur, wouldn't be "reviewing" a place during the first week of opening. Did it occur to any of you complainers to mention to the guy behind the counter that the chairs were--allegedly--not stable? Is your aim to be helpful or just to kvetch pointlessly and stroke your own frustrated egos by venting on Yelp? Sounds like the latter to me.
Why Yelp reviewers don't get paid
Maybe MC Slim JB can help me out here if I'm off base, but who reviews a restaurant in the first two weeks it's open?
The whole reason I haven't gone yet is that, much like Canary Square and The Haven before it, GrassFed needs to work out the kinks. This is why most places go with a soft opening first, but JP really doesn't like waiting for anything and GrassFed's permit problems that prevented it from opening, never mind serving takeout, probably made it necessary to get some cash on hand.
Let's go through your points though:
Part of the problem is right in the name. If Krista went with the meyer beef instead of grassfed beef, she could probably knock the price down. That creates a problem with the whole concept, of course, so it's kind of up to the educated consumer to know what they're getting into when they buy grassfed beef. Still get sticker shock when I see it at Harvest or Whole Foods.
Again, if she went with the Meyer beef, she could probably make them bigger and less expensive. However, if she gives you a bigger burger with the hormone free, grassfed beef, it's only going to cost more.
Hint, neither are the burgers at most burger bars. A burger that size wouldn't be cooked to order anyway. That would be like going into Flat Patties and saying "I'd like it medium well." An exercise in futility that the Yelpers can't seem to wrap their heads around.
Again, they're two weeks in. From what I've seen walking by, they have the same recycled steel Navy chairs that Canary Square has. Those are usually pretty sturdy.
Yet you signed on as an anon. Listen, I'm all for anonymity when it serves the better good, but you can't butt in with a gem like "someone who has run two high-end restaurants" and keep throwing pot shots from behind the wall. What were your restaurants? Were they table service, or something akin to GrassFed or Dorado? The context of your experience would say a lot about the value of your critique. Why hide it?
Probably the city's. The city held GrassFed's license for more than a month before it opened. After following that saga, I'm not surprised they don't have a takeout license yet.
Me-yow! Wow, it just got so industry in here all of a sudden. This sounds like some personal squabble that 95% of the city doesn't care about. You obviously feel strongly enough about that little tiff to go completely off topic in a post about Citizen and Tasty Burger.
My advice: Grow up. Nobody gives a shit about this town's scenes. Nobody wants to hear the guys from Somerville opening for Electric Six at the Middle East badmouth Passion Pit onstage. Nobody cares what Carly Caroli is like in real life or if Mike Marotta's a better writer than Mike Brodeur. Nobody wants to hear it if the Chase Gallery thinks Beead + Fiber's installation is derivative and unworthy of the SoWa stamp.
All of this petty little sniping just makes you sound like provincial little pedants who have doomed themselves to a life together in the purgatory that is this town. Meanwhile, the rest of us just look for another place to eat.
Your arguments about the cost
Your arguments about the cost of the food are refuted by one simple fact: $14 gets you a gigantic, grassfed, hormone free burger cooked to order perfectly on a better bun with side AND a beer AND bread/olive oil in a sit-down restaurant just two doors down the street in a restaurant owned by the same person.
The reason I posted was because the subject at hand is about a ragey business owner in the burger biz. And thank you, I've lived in JP longer than you, I'm quite positive...which is why I remember the attitude on TT's answering machine.
Missing the point
Again, nobody cares. The "I'm more JP than you" game was tiresome during the E line discussion and has only grown more grating through the Agazziz School debate, the Whole Foods fight and the Casey Overpass debacle. TT's answering machine message is as immaterial to the discussion as your tenure in Jamaica plain.
Erroneous. That $14 burger is not made with grass fed beef and does not come with a beer. I'm familiar enough with the bar menu to know I'm not getting out of there without spending $20 at minimum.
Let's go out on a limb and see if we can get this anon to fess up. Jaime Bissonette, is that you? Doesn't seem like a discussion Jaime would get into, but i don't know his life. Feel free to reply again. I have a few other educated guesses.
Missing the point
Again, nobody cares. The "I'm more JP than you" game was tiresome during the E line discussion and has only grown more grating through the Agazziz School debate, the Whole Foods fight and the Casey Overpass debacle. TT's answering machine message is as immaterial to the discussion as your tenure in Jamaica plain.
Erroneous. That $14 burger is not made with grass fed beef and does not come with a beer. I'm familiar enough with the bar menu to know I'm not getting out of there without spending $20 at minimum.
Let's go out on a limb and see if we can get this anon to fess up. Jaime Bissonette, is that you? Doesn't seem like a discussion Jaime would get into, but i don't know his life. Feel free to reply again. I have a few other educated guesses.
What a joke.
I don't see anything about a beer or grass fed on here:
http://www.tentables.net/barbites.html
*TT BURGER (COOKED TO ORDER):
HUMANELY RAISED ALL NATURAL MEYER BEEF
WITH LETTUCE, FARMHOUSE CHEDDAR, CARAMELIZED ONIONS,
A10 SAUCE, HOUSEMADE BACON AIOLI AND POTATO SALAD $14
WITH A FRIED FARM FRESH EGG ADD $1
Erroneous. That $14 burger is
So the cute girl who gave me a beer and burger for $15 last monday was actually just hitting on me!?!
[Rimshot]
Someone likes you, Pierce.
More likely, you were there the night of the special, as Sally notes below. Any other night, it's just the burger for $14.
That's a weekly special
Not a regular price.
I mean seriously...
Long waits? Waaaaah! No takeout? Yeah, um--we'd all like takeout and there are big signs saying that they're waiting for a takeout permit. And the um...dangerous chairs? They look like the classic, sturdy aluminum chairs to me and they supported my considerable weight with no trouble. Did we have wait to sit down? Yep, but I'm not going to blame the restaurant for the crowd of hungry, hungry hipsters who were lingering over their burgers. Sheesh.
You want a great grass fed burger?
Wild Willy's in Watertown Square has a nice big one for eight bucks that rocks! In all honesty, I will try Grass Fed as I do appreciate Krista's style and the rents are crazy for Ten Tables. The old man always orders two entrees for himself and then he picks on all of ours...
I'd try it
But Watertown is a haul from JP! I get over there like three times a year and then usually I want Middle Eastern food. Still haven't been to Strip-T's either.
If you're in Porter Square
Christopher's is pretty awesome - they have been doing the progressive food like this for at least 20 years. No attitude from the servers, either.
Only 6 miles
Just go out the backside of JP around the pond and onto Chestnut Hill Ave at Rt 9. Follow that all the way through Brighton center where it turns into Market St and hang a left at North Beacon (Rt 20) and follow that through Brighton Circle taking the right over the river still following North Beacon all the way to Watertown Square where you can cut across to Arsenal.
Use a Zipcar if you don't have a car. Wild Willy's has a free parking lot. It's like 15-20 minutes tops one-way.
Just drive a really convoluted route!
It seems so easy now! Thanks Kaz!
You're welcome
Next time, feel free to just use the plus button (or not) if you're not going to add anything to the conversation.
If your idea of convoluted is taking 2 roads (Chestnut Hill Ave to Route 20) to get somewhere, you might just want to take a cab instead.
Or.
You could get the grass fed burger at Four Burgers near the Common, which is 4.1 miles away and accessible by T. Or, you could go to Russell House, Grendel's Den or Cellar near Harvard Square, which are the same distance as Watertown, but accessible by train.
Either way, there are a lot better options than jumping in a car and going to Watertown. There are reasons to go to that town (Target, the Arsenal Mall, the theater, Strip T's, Trini's before Chipotle muscled it out), but burgers aren't among them.
What I'm hearing...
You sound as though you've never had a Wild Willy's burger and fries before.
I have
And I'll repeat: there are a lot better options than jumping in a car and going to Watertown. There are reasons to go to that town (Target, the Arsenal Mall, the theater, Strip T's, Trini's before Chipotle muscled it out), but burgers aren't among them.
If you're going to make a six-mile trek from JP for burgers, you're better off going to Mr. Bartley's or Flat Patties. Better product and far more accessible.
Frankly, I'd cut that trip in half and head to JM Curley's.
Mixing transportation modes and moving goalposts
So, instead of driving 20 minutes by car to Watertown, you'd do what to get to Mr. B's? Take the Orange to Red line? That's at least 40 minutes. You could spend 20 minutes looking for parking in Harvard Square instead. Willy's has a parking lot. Whatever you have against Willy's burgers is clouding your rationality. Mr. B's is great and so is Flat Patties, but neither of them are particularly any more "accessible" than driving to Watertown Square with free parking when you get there. Nevermind that this all started about finding another grass-fed beef place (I don't think B's or Flat Patties are grass-fed as far as I recall). I don't know enough about Curley's to say whether it is or not.
But, whatever, I don't know why you think it's so heinous to go to Watertown, there's nothing wrong with it.
JPFree's point
is, I think, that it takes a pretty extraordinary burger to make it a destination in itself. Most of us are more likely to be heading to Harvard Square for a movie and say "cool--and we can go to Bartley's too!" If we're visiting friends on the North Shore, it's often an extra treat to stop at Woodman's or Virgilio's but I don't know that I'd take an entire trip just for the eats, as devoted as I am. When I get over to the Watertown neck of the woods, I'm usually just there for groceries--Sevan, Eastern Lamejun, Russo's, Arax--but if I can swing a stop at Sofra, I will.
UHub Burger Expedition Team
I thought the point of mentioning where the good burgers are was to the benefit of the community at UHub in general.
So, I like Christopher's and it is close by me ... but, like many folk here, I do rove and occasionally find myself (gasp) outside of my neighborhood. Now I know where to go if, say, we make an Arburrito trip or hike Blue Hill or otherwise find ourselves in the area looking for a burger. Ditto the next time I pick up a carload of hungry teen boys at the Brighton KofC after a Magic the Gathering tournament and am going through Watertown on the way home.
This quickly gets beyond a single neighborhood or the idea of travelling for a specific place to eat, and becomes a good reference for where to go when you are in a particular area.
The point
Was more along the lines of what Sally described. For many of us here in JP, it takes something a lot more compelling than a burger to get the car out of its parking spot.
In my personal opinion, Wild Willy's burgers are fine, but nothing I can't get the equivalent of along a train line. I have no hatred of the Wild Willy burger, much as I don't hate Five Guys. However, do either compel me to start up the car and burn 12 miles worth of gas? No.
There are food items that do. I'll make the trip to Huot's near Saco every summer because the batter on their bay shrimp and scallops is unlike anything I've had this far down the coast (and I'm both a Woodman's and Clam Box fan). I'll similarly take the drive up to Old Orchard Beach for Pier Fries. I'll hit Portland for Fore Street, Street & Co. and Becky's Diner. If the D line didn't run right under it, I'd drive to the Station Diner in Newton, too.
You were wrong.
The discussion centered around GrassFed and then turned to where you could get a "good" grass-fed burger because the easily affronted Yelpers of the Greater Boston area don't like not being able to micromanage their burgers (try ordering that way at the White Mana in Jersey City or Hackensack or at the White Rose in Highland Park, you'd get backslapped with a spatula). Kaz suggested Wild Willy's. I suggested it wasn't worth the trip or the gas money.
It went on from there.
You go all the way out of Medford, do you? That booming metropolis? Why would you leave when everything you need is right there? We all leave our own neighborhoods, but my argument is that Wild Willy's in itself is not a reason to do so. Trina's? Yes. Donovan's? No. The specialty shops? Yes. Wild Willy's? No.
I'll give in on this point: If you happen to have dragged yourself out to Watertown and aren't in the mood for the Deluxe Towne Diner, Wild Willys might be for you. Just don't expect miracles. It's an decisively average burger at a modest price.
Buses go to Watertown
No car needed!
But yeah, it's a bit of a commute from JP without a car. Which is why I hardly ever go over to JP.
No point in having
rt bus fare added to the cost of your burger if we're really dickering about the $14 Beerger special at TTs vs the $9 Grassfed burger plus $6 milk stout and $4 large fries. Let alone a Zipcar from JP to Watertown which would add at least $20 to the cost of your outing.
There ought a be an app...
so that my phone starts beeping wildly whenever I get within range of a really good burger...
Strip T's
has an outstanding burger, FYI.
edit: Wild Willy's is ok, but I wouldn't drive from JP to Watertown just for WW's. I live in Watertown and make my way there
once every few months.
Thanks a lot!
Now I'm craving a burger...
Smoke gets in your eyes
Living in the Fenway neighborhood, I've enjoyed a burger or organic chicken at CITIZEN more than once. No complaints on service - always friendly.
I also appreciate the bartender recommending one whiskey over the one I was going to order when he heard the type I like from the server.
Unfortunately, the last visit, however, the cook was spilling salt into the oyster stew and onto the chicken breast.
As for TASTY Burger, ugh! It constantly spits out greasy smoke into the neighborhood making one wonder how Mr. DuBois gets away with such stinking exhaust. Guess he pushes his way around...of course, TASTY Burger is temporary in a former garage which awaits imminent redevelopment.
Who needs to eat it?
It's obvious from the picture that's a ciabatta and not a hamburger bun. Nothing wrong with pointing out that's the wrong bread. Send it back.
one more place I won't be eating
I gone past this place many times, have considered going in to eat. Would have eaten there based on review. Won't ever enter the place based on Dubois' reaction to a review. This frightening response to a good review would make me uncomfortable just being inside this place on the off chance Mr. Dubois was also inside.
The thing with Yelp is...
Trusting in Yelp reviews is like trusting your horoscope in the Herald to tell you how your day will turn out.
Does anyone really think that every single person who was born a Leo is going to have the same shitty Wednesday?
It helps to think of Yelp like a weather report. The weather can be predicted based on current conditions, but because it is just a prediction of a potential future event, well, there is a chance it might not turn out that way. Think of all those times in the past when the weather folks were all hooped up on fears of a snowmaggedon that petered out into a non-event.
People like to get hooped up about being the first with their opinion, and it turns into a Yelpocalypse of reviews.
Meh. Just tell me if there is parking, if they take credit cards, if the bathrooms are clean. More than that, I will look to a professional reviewer who can look at the current conditions and make a reasonable prediction as to how the future looks.
Learning to read between the whines
Yelp is indespensible to me when I'm on the road. During a pre-conference meeting away from Boston, I needed to find a restaurant that was in walking distance, would fit in our expense account budget, and take a table of 14 on a Saturday Evening. I immediately sorted by area, cost, and "good for large groups" and called down the list of aggregate ratings until I got to the third one, which could take our group. Everybody loved the place.
I also wanted an italian dinner for two in Chicago within close walking distance and nearby my hotel. Score again!
If a place has only a couple of reviews, I won't pay attention. If it has a lot of positive reviews, it is usually a good risk. In any case, Yelp is much better when travelling than just wandering around and taking your chances.
Another one bites the dust
Looks like I'll be adding Tasty Burger and this asshat's other places to my "never again" list.
Dude acts like a 3rd grader and expects me to patronize his businesses. Right...