I didn’t just want to think about my experi- ences, I began to want to write about them, too, so I’d never lose the memories of the places I was visiting.
I credit three people as partially responsible for my being a restaurant reviewer: 1. Mr. McDevitt, my eight grade English teacher (the year I aced English and F’d algebra); 2. Bob Bickell, the late and lamented publisher of The Restaurant Report, a restaurant-support- ing trade publication of high merit and re- spectability. Bob published my first-ever restaurant-related article,Critiquing Restau- rant Critics – a point/counterpoint piece that gave me the confidence to want to continue my dream of hospitality writing back in 1997.
Guess what? It still viewable on the Internet to this day! (Keywords: Ken Alan, The Great De- bate)
The third influencer is Michael Klein. The long-scribing Table Talk editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t have to take me on as a “Mystery Muncher” (a clandestine freelance reviewer), but he did anyway.
Michael being Michael (read: one of the biggest nice-guy mensch’s that I know), he saw enough potential in me to let me run with my passion, and he allowed me to be a Mys- tery Muncher for over a decade with the paper, until the recession of 2008 put the ky- bosh on extraneous freelance articles like my biweekly copy in the Friday Weekend section.
But by then, thanks to Michael Klein, Bob Bickell, and even Mr. McDevitt, I was finding my voice, my style, and ongoing writing gigs.
I’ve never sought to become famous or even a nationally-published scribe, but I have contin- ually represented respected publications through the years, including Philadelphia magazine, Philadelphia Style, and Mid-Atlantic Events Magazine (since 1996.). Nary a month
7 4 Januaryz February2020
has passed in two-hundred eight of them where I haven’t felt the cold steel trap-grizzly bear jaws of a deadline fast approaching!
Through some luck and good contacts, Main Line Today came my way in 2013.
Its monthly coverage, combined with its sweeping distribution, has led to inevitable comments that I’ll continually receive from family, friends, clients and coworkers who all start their sentences in the same general way: “I was reading your latest review in the Main Line magazine...” which is quickly fol- lowed by “…when I was waiting for my root canal” or “…right before physical therapy,” or “…getting an oil change,” or “…as I was being prepped for my colonoscopy.”
If I had a nickel for every time someone said to me: “Being a restaurant critic is my dream job!” I’d have a hell of a lot of coins. To all of you who really think this way, I say, “Start liv- ing your dream!”
Even though a degree in journalism has gone the way of the Betamax repairman, there are still so many opportunities out there for aspir- ing writers - in fact, more now than ever be- fore.
Any restaurant reviewing wannabe has a lucky advantage these days: Yelp, or TripAdvi- sor, or any of those similar types of online ag- gregators of opinion-based data - they’re all practice platforms. Write a review, edit and hone it; then write another one - a better one, and so on… Practice makes perfect!
Then, start a blog or try to gain readership traction on large platforms like Reddit and Tumblr. Maybe pitch a national publication or blog, like Food & Wine or Eater.
Then, finally, one day you’re a restaurant critic. And who knows how far you can take that?
I could never, ever produce an accurate list of all of the restaurants I’ve reviewed over the years.
What I do know - with all of that dining behind me - is that very few places scored less than a “C” with me, with most holding certain re- deeming characteristics of some sort or an- other. I’ve learned, as well, that some of the dive-iest joints can be the best kind of places, and that most people who wait tables - even the worst of the bunch - they’re still, by and large, usually really good-hearted individuals.
Where have I enjoyed some of my most thought-provoking meals?
Well, there was that time when my wife and I got to dine at Noma in Copenhagen during its heyday. (Note - for years running ‘til recently, Noma was considered #1 on “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list.)
Was Noma’s Rene Redzepi’s molecular gas- tronomy really the best of the best end-all/be- all? Sure, why not? But my most memorable takeaway came from my wife getting uninten- tionally locked in the restaurant’s water closet for over twenty-minutes. Since then, she’s suffered anxiety due to the incident!
Who’d ever think the outcome of “the best meal on earth” would be a thorny case of claustrophobia?
A personal-best meal for me was probably
the Cajun eats I enjoyed to no end at Cochon in the Garden District in New Orleans. Ah, that magical fried alligator with chili garlic aioli!
Or, was it taking my dearly-departed grand- mother to famed Le Bec-Fin?
Or, taking my dearly-youthful daughter to our special “Daddy/Daughter Day” dinners to- gether at some of this region’s most-interest- ing restaurants (Morimoto, Nectar, the
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