A US food critic has revealed how his power list of burgers led to the closure of the restaurant at No 1. It’s an experience his fellow critics can relate to
In a piece on the website Thrillist headlined: “I found the best burger place in America. And then I killed it,” Kevin Alexander last week copped to the unexpected. Uncommonly extensive research (330 restaurants tested across 30 states over the course of 12 months) had led the award-winning food writer to compile, last year, a 100-strong power list of the best burgers in the US. Now he was reporting on how, within five months of publication, the mom-and-pop joint that made No 1 on that list – Stanich’s, in Portland, Oregon – had been forced to close, supposedly succumbing to the pressures that come from being overrun by burger tourists. It didn’t help that “personal problems” made rising to the challenge of the restaurant’s newfound popularity too difficult for Stanich’s propreitor. Alexander was feeling awful about it.
It’s a compelling narrative: a critic cast as the big bad wolf coming to huff and puff and blow your eatery down is the premise of many a cheesy food-themed drama. It’s Ratatouille’s Anton Ego demoting Gusteau’s by a star and the chef dying, broken-hearted, as a result. The idea that a critic might kill a restaurant with praise, though, is one to make you sit up straight. Really? Can accolades also be fatal in this business? Then again, do scathing comments, in real life, wield that amount of power? Can you ever claim straight causality between printed word and kitchen closure? I determined to find out.
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