Last week I read about a critic from the D.C.-based Washingtonian doing a restaurant review though Twitter. While I find it fascinating that people are using the platform in an outside-the-box way, I also find it slightly ridiculous. Who wants to sit glued to a computer for four hours at a time waiting to hear the play by play of someone else’s dining experience? Apparently 56 people (the number of users following reviewer Todd Kliman on Twitter at the time I wrote this), not including those who read the web-version on Washingtonian.com.
The real question is whether these types of real-time reviews will become commonplace. This may not only be with restaurants, but also with books, movies, albums and other media.
While a full review of Alain Ducasse’s Adour appeared the following morning, I ultimately I felt for the reviewer, as every few minutes his glorious meal was interrupted so he could type 140 characters or less into his BlackBerry.
I hated the entire idea of this at first. But as I continued to read I found clever insights (“The Riesling is a good match, a very good match. Is there anything that doesn’t go with a Theise wine? Maybe moonpies.”) and fun anecdotes (“The guy next to us, his macaroon tray: beat up, demolished. He picked them up, squeezed them, plucked their essence out.”), which wouldn’t normally be found in a formal review. It felt personal. It felt as if I was at dinner with the reviewer. He’s funny! I like him! Maybe this isn’t so ridiculous…
