How likely am I to dine at Ken’s Place? Not nearly as much as I might have been before I saw Chef Ken’s screed in the comments ^[1] to his restaurant’s review on Portland Food & Drink ^[2].

I can understand feeling offended when your pride & joy is criticized. But to go on the attack with a guy who’s been a paying customer in your restaurant? Well, that’s just a bad PR move, for starters. And it left a nasty taste in my mouth.

From Ken’s comment:

Who is this ìFood Dude?î Who is he accountable to and what is his background and training, and who enforces his objectivity?

If he’d spent a little time poking around FoodDude’s site before launching his rant, he’d have discovered that the guy spends a ton of time and money dining out around town (his triple digit dining bill for last week alone almost knocked me off my chair.) His reviews are based on several visits, and start with the premise that the experience will be a pleasant one. His critiques are velvet gloved, and I know he’s pulled punches that might sorta maybe approach the suckerpunch realm. (I wouldn’t have been as kind…)

But, most importantly, he’s the guy who paid his tab at the end of the night. He’s the guy who’s already promised to pay more tabs in the future, in hopes that things will be better. He’s your customer.

Do you really want to be calling him out in front of several hundred people – many who could care less ^[3] about what ‘professional’ restaurant reviewers have to say? Wouldn’t it have been much more gracious to say this?

I’m sorry your recent experiences here weren’t good ones. While we strive to make each meal enjoyable, occasionally we may miss the mark. Please let us know next time if something isn’t to your liking, and we’ll do our best to remedy the situation. We hope to see you again at Ken’s Place.

Here’s a simple truth: You don’t bite the hand that you feed. Especially when there’s an audience paying attention.

To be fair, it does appear that FoodDude and Ken have had several subsequent email conversations and come to a meeting of the minds (although Ken might want to think about deleting the screed, as it reflects poorly on him.) And it’s also fair to note that FoodDude is a friend of mine – even though he might characterize it as a stalker/stalkee relationship and has NOT asked me to write about this (and no, I’m not going to tell anyone who he is or what he looks like…)

And just in case I need to post my CV? Years working in restaurants, years as a reviewer (although not food) for mainstream pubs, not to mention several additional years spent marinating in media outlets. And – oh yeah – that time spent working for a PR firm.

(Ken – feel free to adapt that and use it from now on. No charge…)