Week In Review
Congrats to the Birdhouse team that was in Food & Wine Magazine this month in a Trendspotting article. Heidi and I took in some darts last night, a delicious boar ribs, all washed down with some Tank 7. I’m loving the work that Ben and his team are doing.
Speaking of Food & Wine Andrew Zimmern has launched a food truck business. It’s called AZ Canteen. Sounds very cool. Goat burgers, pork belly, and veal tongue. All equals yum, especially in the hands of a such a knowledgeable cook. With all of his travel one has to assume that he has picked up some good tricks, though the difference between good ideas and execution is where the rubber meets the road.
So a critic is now in the food truck biz, what an interesting development. The new reality raises some very interesting ethical questions for me. Is Zimmern still on the editorial board at MSP-picking cheap eats like he did this month? Does his role as critic and writing about the business conflict with his now actually being in the business? They can’t make the claim that they won’t cover his truck, and keep an arms length, they wrote about it yesterday. Who will review his food truck? Obviously I will for this blog, but who will for the magazine?
MSP has blurred the lines already by having Steven Brown, Johnny Micheals, and Marianne Miller write for the mag. So I’m not sure that there is much consideration along those lines, though you would think they they would seek to create the impression of objectivity. You can’t imagine the Star Tribune ever crossing that line. But should a magazine follow a similar code of conduct as a newspaper? Should they try to keep some distance from the industry they cover, or just throw in the towel? Very, very interesting.
Brave new world we live in.
http://blogs.mspmag.com/foodiefile/2012/08/coming-soon-eat-shop/
Circle jerk. That is all.
Yeah, it’s time to get serious food criticism to go with the serious food. We’ve seen an exponential growth in the number of local restaurants featured nationally. It’s not just a bunch of impetuous risk-takers anymore. It’s time to treat restauranteurs like the grown-ups they are.
“Circle jerk. That is all.”
A horrendous little writing specimen as well. Come on, Stephanie.
Thanks for the mental imagery jim
couple of things….lots of gray…first, i dont review restos anymore for MSPMAG. i write a weekly blog, and a monthly essay. I would NEVER formally review anything. not rght. but i would hope readers would want people with a little bit of experience like Steven, Johnny and myself recommending places around town that we like. thats called reader service and its an important component of what we do. the whole notion that we need “more serious dining criticism” is puzzling to me. I read Lucky Peach and the conversational diatribes of Chang et al and its way to serious and it preaches to a very narrow audience. our papers and mags have a broader audience here in Minn. And most importantly, i am not sure the dining community would like to be held to the standards of the excruciatingly fidgety dining crit community in many other cities, its not necessary for growth, in fact, what we have created here in last decade is a BOOMING resto scene, why fuck it up? as one of the people directly responisble, in many cases personally responsible for shining national spotlight on MN restos and food community i would caution those looking for more intense scrutiny to be careful for what they ask for…we know restaurant scene here is serious, its taken that way…who isnt taking it that way? who isnt knowledgeable about food who is writing about it? i can name a few, but they arent at MSP MAG! Newsweek featured some of my picks in their 100 best restos around the world, if i can answer to them i think i can recommend a chinese resto for my local monthly. i agree however, that there are still some inexperienced morons writing about food and wine. its sad, and it shouldnt be that way but some media outlets just have no clue and promote someone who last week was writing about antique stores…
as for the truck, i am a business person, just like you Shef, and i cant wait to make you a goat sausage sandwich! you will love it.
You’re talking my language when you say goat, goat anything and I’m there. Well not anything. Let’s not start any Richard Gere type rumors.
My guess is that you will kill it, which will make me very jealous and I will hate you not so secretly-though I will disguise it well in various “issues”.
I don’t think everyone at MSP is the real deal. That’s no secret. Steph I love. She has integrity and street smarts and is for real. I would follow her over the lip of a fox hole into a hail of bullets. She takes change slowly however, and I struggle with that. On another level I admire her patience. I have no doubt she’ll throw a little dirt in my grave when the time comes (that’s meant as a good thing).
I love Peter, and I think he could be a very tough critic-he is the smartest mother fucker around. And you are right that that may not be the way to go.
Marianne, Steven, and Johnny are in the biz. Don’t you think that we have connections, disputes, and differences that we all come by honestly? Friends, here and there. At times we have been interested, and or done business behind the scenes with each other. It makes the perception of objectivity somewhat strained from my perspective. It’s like the WWE around here, the villains, and the good guys…
On the sanctimonious side I agree, the whole fucking subject is so tedious that sometimes I want to puke.
But then shit like this happens,a farmer delivered some tomatoes and told me the story of each one–I don’t think I have ever been more in love with cooking. It was magic. And you are also right that that didn’t happen ten years ago. You are a big part of the change.
So what happens now? Dara always worries that it won’t end well, “How can this end well?” she asks. Why she is so obsessed about the ending is beyond me. It’s the middle that counts.
The Strib proves week in and week out that that can be done with objectivity (distance), and integrity. Mostly like college, but it would be nice if they did some post graduate work as well.
By the way this was all written by a fella wearing a pair of split pants. So take it in context.
God bless the internet!?@#!
you had me at goat sausage sandwich, AZ, you had me at goat sausage sandwich…
1) does Jason DeRusha’s comment in that MSP link indicate/hint that Stephanie March is previewing her husband’s restaurant? that would seem like a conflict of interest, no?
2) the billboard of Zimmern on 94 makes his head look unusually large in the way the dome extends beyond the top margin of the billboard.
3) i love Dave Brubeck as much as the next nerdy white guy, but Paul Desmond should have had equal billing.
4) i love the local restaurant scene here. it’s perfectly suited to the populace. a good mix of prairie sensibilities (welcome to East Dakota) and urbane cosmopolitan-ness for the upper crust and Target & Hazelden transplants…but always remember, shorts in the summer and jeans in the winter.
Odd that there is a waiting list a mile long to have booth at State Fair but AZ can get in right away?
I will surely check it out as a he will be competing with us down there.
Good Luck to him – I am sure he will a line around the corner. And yes it is about execution and moving the lines at the fair.