ANY PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY

Man it sure is easy for mean people to be even meaner when they talk with a keyboard instead of a phone. After I closed Standard for three hours yesterday, I heard from some angry peeps. I apologized. I printed the GM’s message. You want blood? Fine, take it, Mark. But, other than the Standard report, I said the rest were all rumors. What is wrong with stirring the pot? In the end, it’s all talk about the Dallas restaurant scene that, quite frankly, is something that needs to pick up. It’s flat out there. Well, unless you count all the news about big expensive guys who are moving in to take big dollars away from businesses like Standard or Tutto or George. I want the local, chef-driven places to have waiting lines out the door. But guess what? I just called Hibiscus, Abacus, and Stephan Pyles for reservations on Friday night. No problem. Not the case at Cheesecake Factory or P.F. Chang’s where waits for a table on the weekends range from 45 minutes to an hour. And, like Stuertz says, restaurants aren’t always truthful when I ask. D has sent a photographer to many restaurants to shoot pictures to accompany a review and the owner knows they will be closed before the review runs. Do they let me know? Hell, no.