Redeeming Redeeming Restaurant criticism? Or, Sifty Fifty, what's your 20?

In the wake of Ozersky's bluster about Sifton, The Cod suggested last week that maybe the NYT critic does not make or break restaurants in 2011: 

The scale of both NYC and the Times make the idea of the Wednesday review as a make or break for decisions for diners untenable -- indeed a glowing review likely has a Berra effect in the short term. There may be a dowager ensconsed on the upper East side somewhere who never looks at Eater, or Yelp, or Zagat, or whatever, reads the Wednesday Times, and if the review is three stars or better, peels of her white cotton gloves and directs her chauffeur to take her to the restaurant reviewed that day.

However FOC, and favorite resto I've never been to (my EV privileges were suspended for the rest of 2011), Northern Spy begged to differ, see at right. I'm not in the restaurant business, so if these folks take print reviews seriously, I have to take that seriously. Not to belabor the point, but I'm assuming that "print" here means traditional media, regardless of form of delivery, rather than necessarily actual fishwrap. 

To that end, the biggest make-or-break I could see coming out of the NYT would not be the # of stars in a review, but being picked up or dropped from the Sifty Fifty, a much more useful tool for deciding where you might actually eat. That said, w/ Sifton's ankling the tables of NYC for rubber chicken in Manchester, NH, and greasy burgers in Spartanburg, SC, what will become of the Sifty Fifty? Will they have a new name? "The Grimes 49"? "The Just stay out of Professor Thom's, Asshat 48?" 

Comments

[Danielle]

I continue to think that the NYT restaurant review's primary role is to be a fine source of lunchtime escapist reading.

[Addison]

Northern Spy is really good.

[replica jewelry]

Thank you so very much for taking the time to share…very useful, indeed!hrdt