I’m guessing the Bergen Record recently changed their business model and decided to ramp up their online ad revenue. And how do you get advertisers to pay you for online ads? Traffic. And how do you get traffic to your website? By having your editors share their opinions on cooking and lifestyle and restaurants and stuff? Yeah, maybe a little. How do you *really* get traffic to your website? Answer: allow anyone to use it as a soapbox. And that’s just what the Bergen Record did when it opened up its main site and its Second Helpings food blog to reader comments a few weeks ago. Now, idiots like you and me can post practically anything (although I’m sure they have guidelines as far as what stays up) in response to the editors (and each other).
Did I read Second Helpings to see what Bill Pitcher was reporting on before the comments opened up? Sure, every now and again. But you can bet that I’m checking more often these days, hanging on every word that TruffleWhippedCreamGal says about A Mano or what SherlockGnomes says about the Allendale Bar and Grill. Oh the Record is getting multiple hits from me every day, that’s for sure.
And what brilliant timing for the shift to open comments: they had just published a most unflattering and somewhat brutal review of a well-loved family-run Bergen County restaurant: Biagio’s in Paramus.
I sat here on the morning after the review was published, reading the various comments left by fans of Biagio’s (and more here). I was extremely entertained. People were clearly taking this very personally. “Attack my favorite restaurant!?!?! How DARE you!?!?!?! You, ma’am, have no idea what you are talking about and should be stoned, publicly. I am officially canceling my subscription to the Bergen Record. You need to apologize for being so mean!!! Fire her!!!!!”
The collective reaction was interesting. I mean, you trash someone’s favorite restaurant, and you are, in essence, attacking them. And then people hate you. And I get that. People have no doubt grown up with Biagio’s (the family has owned the restaurant for quite a few years). They’ve had birthday parties there. Graduation parties. Weddings. Hell on each of my two recent visits (a weekend day and a weekday night), there was a party going on in one of the private rooms (they have several for your partying pleasure). The regulars know the owners by name and they’re known by name. That makes people feel good. About themselves. About the restaurant (or, the “establishment”, as its fans like to refer to it in those comments). Biagio’s is woven into their memories, into the fabric of their very being. This, I think, partly explains why they don’t realize that Biagio’s simply does not serve very notable food. Perhaps Biagio’s fans weigh those aspects more than the actual food. Perhaps they really don’t give food much thought to begin with. The former is no doubt true, but I’m not about to discount the latter.
And hey, there’s nothing wrong with not giving food much thought. I don’t give much thought to a lot of things that others are fanatic about: clothing, electronics, cars, and pretty much everything but food (and music). The difference, though, is that my feelings aren't when a magazine reviews my crappy Onkyo receiver and gives it a bad rating: I’m comfortable with the fact that my Onkyo receiver isn’t all that good. It serves my needs, and that’s just fine by me.
But it’s really not important why people like Biagio’s. I’m sure they’re very nice people, some of whom clearly do not spell very well or write very often, but I’m not going to put much more thought into it. All I know for sure is what I think about Biagio’s. You want to know too. Admit it. That’s why you’re here, right now, reading this nonsense. So here you go, complete with crappy cell phone pictures.
