Just as so many other jobs have been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so too has the role of the restaurant critic.
In an article on Poynter, writer Kristen Hare covered a critic who is choosing to include a new element in his reviews, born of the pandemic. The Orange County Register’s critic, Brad A. Johnson, has started a COVID Comfort Rating System, which ranges from A (“Excellent, with protocols that go above and beyond”) to F (“Not following any apparent protocols”). The reviews have the caveat that they are based on Johnson’s “personal observations of state and CDC guidelines for restaurant safety during the pandemic.”
Social distancing is a new measurable for some restaurant reviews.
getty
A rare A grade for Sushi Ii notes that the restaurant performs temperature checks at door and enforces masks for customers and staff, provides hand sanitizer and sanitizes table and chairs, maintains distancing for seating and provides touchless menus, among other criteria. A withering note at the end of an F grade for Arc restaurant concludes “Arc does not appear to embrace any COVID-19 safety protocols”, and provides indoor and bar dining despite current safety guidelines.
When asked why he is taking on the additional duties of safety inspector, Johnson told Poynter that he is doing in part because he wants the restaurants (an industry hard hit by COVID-19) to succeed: “I don’t want restaurants to have to shut down again because there were clusters tied to people eating at a handful of restaurants. I feel like we’re all in this together. I feel like I’m doing my part,” he said. “But I’m still a critic.”
Although these observations seem more in line with a safety or health inspector than the restaurant critic, in reality, the job had been evolving for quite some time. The internet, of course, both democratized and changed the tone of restaurant reviewing to provide an arena for some of the best and worst facets of human discourse (as the internet tends to do). Gone is the power of the poison pen of Anton Ego-esque critics — there are now thousands typing away on Yelp each day. This shift can be seen in the recent closure of The Association of Food Journalists, a 46-year old association that counted some of the U.S’s few remaining newspaper restaurant critics in its membership (full disclosure: I was a member and former regional co-director of the organization). Online reviewing also changed other elements of the critic’s life: the timeline to review new spots shortened with the rush to be first, and anonymity became harder, if not nigh impossible, to achieve (I’ve written before about how some critics, in response, chose to take off their disguises).
Reviewers observe the entire experience of dining out, and the past decade have seen dogged reporters bringing decibel measuring equipment, rulers and other devices into the front of house. And although this comfort rating system seems to quantify the restaurant experience rather than qualify it, as has traditionally been done, there are certain numbers that are standard for reviewing: prices, number of seats or size of restaurant are fair game. Restaurant inspections are a matter of public record, whether they are on a pass/conditional/fail system or a letter grade, and the star system for reviews has been around almost since restaurant reviewing began.
Now that COVID-19 has imbued the dining public and the restaurateurs that feed them with a certain amount of real anxiety over what was once a routine act, perhaps this type of review will help ease the mind of customers and let them focus on the food on the plate — either way, it will be interesting to see how these shifts will define the restaurant review of the future.