cookiesinheaven

If you think restaurant critics from mainstream newspapers, television and magazines are tough on the food industry, you haven't spent much time in cyberspace. Online message boards, gossip columns, city restaurant guides and food blogs are proliferating and having a profound influence on where consumers spend their eating dollars. The once-genteel discipline of restaurant reviewing has turned into a free-for-all, celebrated by some as a new-world democracy but seen by others as populist tyranny.

Many restaurateurs say these amateur critics don't even give them time to press the wrinkles out of their table linens before posting negative write-ups. They long for the days when they had to contend only with mainstream critics, who generally wait at least 30 days before reviewing a restaurant so chefs and staff could work out the glitches.

But, bloggers believe they are doing a public service. Eating out is costly, they say, so why shouldn't buyers be forewarned before plunking down good money?

..."There's a depth of obsessiveness in these blogs that's making them fun to read, and they can have instant impact on a restaurant," said David Kamp, author of "United States of Arugula," a book about the evolution of the American food culture.

To change with the times, restaurateurs are doing what any smart businessperson does -- listening to their critics. They're also wining and dining powerful Internet food writers. - SFGate