Changes in 2019

My cherished readers will have noticed: 2018 was pretty quiet and some of you even took the time to write me with a personal message to encourage more content. Your feedback was highly appreciated.

But there’s an underlying reason for the drop in articles. It’s not a lack of eating at restaurants, a sudden interest in soylent or a new found interest in working out. The change runs deeper: when the real picky gourmet started blogging (oldest Zurich restaurant blog), the aim was to be comprehensive and quick.

Back in 2007 restaurants still operated like it was 1982. You’d open an establishment and wait for people to drop in. Eventually word-of-mouth would catch on and if you got really lucky the Gault Millau would visit you and dole out some points.

Using data analysis (eg. scouring the Handelsregister for newly incorporated gastro companies), word-of-mouth from industry insiders or simply walking through Zurich and doing a little bit of reconnaissance would allow me to stay on top of where a new place was going to open.

The biggest thrill was always beating Zurich’s leading voice in the restaurant review business (Züritipp). As much as I cherished their then Editor Esther K. and still very active culinary editor Dani B. Nothing was as much fun as beating them to the punch and bragging about it

Things have changed. Even small, operator run restaurants have started to spend money on marketing and sometimes even hiring a PR consultant to accompany an opening. The chances of you finding an “unknown” dining establishment has been reduced greatly.

This effect is best observed by the spread of the dreaded “pre-opening”. Standard in many countries outside of Switzerland, what this means is that a restaurant will have a friends, family and media night before they open. Say you’re opening your restaurant on Saturday to the public, on Friday you’d invite every journalist and their sidekick, wine and dine them in return for coverage of your establishment.

The biggest drawback for the reader of a restaurant review of a pre-opening is, that this does not reflect a real dining experience. Typically, these are events with free drink and booze, with lots of people who know each other and a crew fully alert that their dining room is filled by influencers. Such an event resembles more an elaborate dinner party at a friend’s house than a dinner at a restaurant.

The drawback for the real picky gourmet is obvious: the times where you could score a scoop by discovering a new restaurant is mostly gone. By the time a restaurant opens for real business, the first media outlets will already have covered the place extensively.

While this might seem less romantic, there is a strong economical force behind this uptick in PR and marketing for restaurants. Some industry experts in New York will go as far as saying if you don’t make it on the first weekend you’ve opened your restaunts, your chances of keeping the doors open are slim. Hence you focus on starting with a great vibe, great coverage and a very full dining room.

Another effect is the more professional coverage of the restaurant scene by blogs which are eating into the traditional media space. Be it Harrys Ding , Das Filet or even the traditional Gault Millau now running a pretty good online channel on Zurich . Simply put – this means more players covering the same locations, hence limiting the options to score a scoop. Harder than back in the day where print would always lag a few days behind at the very least.

My biggest goal and driving force has always been to cover real dining experiences, just as if my parents would show up at a restaurant (read Ruth Reichls excellent book for some background on this topic). This is only possible under two conditions: a) that I pay for my own meals and b) that I operate anonymously. I have let myself be invited to few events (about 5 times in over 700 meals) and realized that was a mistake. You lose critical distance and are apt to be less judgy.

To be fair I’ve also erred on the wrong side and been too critical for the sake of entertainment every once in a while. But I did learn something from it: the biggest challenge in reviewing a restaurant is not calling out flaws, but describing what and why something is good.

So, what does this mean for the real picky gourmet? I will continue to write on restaurants which I think are worthwhile mentioning. However, in lower frequency to match my budget and without scoops. The real picky gourmet shall remain dedicated to providing the very select readers a glimpse of a real dining experience. If you understand how I judge a restaurant and what I like about dining out, you will be able to fully depend on my reviews.

I wish you a very happy 2019!