Bad Dreams

First, two pieces of business.

Number one: Let’s not forget that Downtown Albany’s Restaurant Week is underway.  I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to get out any night this week, but I’m hoping it works out so I can try one of the more promising menus.

Number two: Yesterday’s post should have totally been titled Good Vermouth Hunting.  I apologize for the complete missed opportunity to reference Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.  Moving on.

Every independent restaurant and every small store starts as somebody’s dream.  Regardless of how misguided that dream may seem to every other person who comes across it.  Even regardless of whether that dream turns into a nightmare in short order.  Each of these ill conceived ventures was somebody’s hope at creating something special.

The ones that are doomed from the start are especially tragic.

Not that every small-scale venture is destined to wind up like this.  Some indeed do very well, and it’s those enduring businesses that drive others to attempt to duplicate their successes.

Why am I mentioning this now?  Well, I recently encountered two such places and it made me think about my approach to reviewing.

These places will not be named.

I take no delight in smashing people’s dreams.  That is completely different from taking places down a peg or two.  I hope that I’ve made it clear in the past that I am much harder on places that are trying to be something they are not.  The restaurant that offers dressed-up diner  food but that is putting it on beautiful plates, with fine table linens and is charging twice the price, will be held to a higher standard than a cheap and dingy tavern.

Primarily I like to point out that the emperor has no clothes.  That’s a lot more interesting than kicking a person when they are down.

All the same, I think it’s only fair to offer struggling businesses some constructive criticism, and a reasonable assessment of their performance.  I wouldn’t be doing a doomed business any favors if I told them everything was great, and I loved what they’ve done with the place.  In this regard it is no different than any under performing establishment.

No matter how bad something is, there is generally at least one bright spot.  Take the meal that I had at Athos a while back.  The grilled pita was amazing, as was at least one of the dips.

Just to be clear, I don’t think Athos is doomed, but just one of the many disappointing restaurants around here.  It just didn’t live up to the hype.  There are people who love this place, but to me it felt very overpriced for what the kitchen puts out.  

On the flip side, if I’ve been to a bad place, I want to save you the heartbreak and disappointment of a bad or even a mediocre meal.  The fact is that I just don’t trash places all that often.  Looking back at all my Yelp reviews, only about six percent of places received one star.  The vast plurality are at the four star level.  This is not because I’m generous with stars.  I’m not.  Nor is it because I only tend to write the more positive reviews; that too would be incorrect.  I attribute it to the simple fact that I try to go to places that are good.

Even places that are doomed to fail have some redeeming qualities.  I remember a “gourmet” chicken wing restaurant in Berkeley.  The problem was that it wasn’t gourmet.  It was global with an array of sauces inspired by different countries.  They had two things going for them.  They knew how to fry, and one or two of the sauces was truly quite excellent.

Still, it was never going to last, but I never had the heart to tell them.  They probably wouldn’t have believed me, even if I did.  That’s the curse of small business owners.  They believe wholeheartedly in what they are doing, and often don’t see any problems until it’s much too late.