Thursday, January 17, 2008 , Updated 1:52 p.m., January 17, 2008
UPDATED: Dallas Morning News’ review of Parlour Cafe in Richardson unleashes holy *storm on Eats blog
"I have never been more disappointed with Guidelive than I am today."
The Dallas Morning News' mixed review of The Parlour Cafe and Wine Bar has unleashed an unholy torrent of disgruntled comments on the paper's Eats blog from unhappy reader/diners.
In any other realm, this might not qualify as news, but by 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, the blog posting had already generated an unprecedented 18 comments -- which, if you've visited the Eats blog you'll know is a HUGE number (especially given the fact that, on a typical day, most of the comments posted on that site come from other DMN employees). That kind of instant groundswell can sometimes can be traced to friends of the restaurant, but Belo moderates its comments so the reaction does represent 18 separate ISP addresses. How about a whoo-hoo.
UPDATE: Awww, after 24 comments, they shut it down! Where's the fun in that.
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twisteddog, says:
Woo...
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Billusa99, says:
Not even Gregory's supporters were that organized! Boy... I sure hope that someone on the Parlour's email list sends you a copy of the alleged email talking points from last night that those posters at Eats are using. C'mon... anyone out there?
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
jonah, says:
Here's the letter they sent.
We've been reviewed...
We would like to see what YOU think about Jason's food and if you go to the 'Eats Blog' at the end of the review you can put your thoughts and ideas into action.
Let's be pro-active and voice our concerns about our neighborhood place and take this opportunity to create a much needed buzz about OUR place.
We REALLY appreciate all of the continued support from our friends...
Thanks for a great year...
Wayne & Doug
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
twisteddog, says:
... hoo.
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Billusa99, says:
Grills just wanna have fu-unnnnn....
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
kate_c, says:
Wow! Loyal customers for posting all those comments. Sleazy owners for asking them to do it. Didn't I hear somewhere that TG is "friend" to one of the Parlour owners?
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, says:
oh my, kate c, i guess that depends on what you mean by "friend"
as i wrote in my <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/dec/14/best-bites-dining-out-dfw-december-14/">original story</a> about the Parlour in December: <em>"Wayne Cummins ... learned the ropes by working at nearly every wine bar in town. He was previously manager at Mercy, worked at the original Cork, as well as Liberty Noodle and the Green Room; but music fans might remember buying CDs from him back when he worked at legendary record stores such as Bill’s and Pagan Rhythms."</em>
i did buy CDs at pagan rhythms. i ate twice at the Green Room, and twice at Mercy. (i don't think he ever waited on me.) i did see him pouring wine last year at Savor Dallas; we said hi.
however, it's worth mentioning that, when i interviewed him on the phone for my story on the Parlour, he had to remind me who he was/where he had worked.
if that's what you mean by "friend", then by all means. i'm just a friendly kind of gal. how about you, kate c
Staff
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Billusa99, says:
Ohhhhhhh boy... here we go again. A post#1 groupie.
What is it with groupies for restaurants north of LBJ posting in threads just to promote/defend a restaurant? Don't they realize how silly they look, as well as the restaurant?!
Anonymous
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Geoff Keah, says:
I’ll give the standard disclaimer in that I am familiar with Wayne and Chef Jason Wade from Mercy. Doug I’ve met a few times here and there. So I’ll say that I have no personal ties or any particular allegiance to Parlour.
With that being said…
I’m also on the Parlour email list and received said email. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say I was displeased, per se about receiving it. But I’ll venture to say that it probably wasn’t the most effective way to go about addressing the issue(s) brought about in the review.
That’s all it is. A review, nothing more, nothing less. Granted, after a positive review, you’ll find any given establishment packed for a couple of weeks. I would have rather they taken it with a grain of salt and rectified the concerns brought forth in the review. For all practical purposes, that’s all any proprietor can do. Read, review, correct the problem and carry on.
As unbiased as I’ll try to be, I’ll say that overall Parlour has pretty good food and good service. On the same token, we’ve all been to places where we’ve had solid and consistent service, only to see the place get trashed in the DMN review. And we’ve also seen reviews of places we thought were trash, and DMN glorifies the place. I guess it’s just the nature of the beast.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to catch any of the responses on the Eats section, but I will say that I feel there’s some sort of journalistic bias by shutting off commentary. As an open forum for discussion, people should have been entitled to post up their opinions, thoughts, and personal experiences from going to Parlour. But tagging it under the guise that they “didn’t want their email servers being overloaded”? Come on. If the comments were obviously from friends or loyal patrons, natural selection would have taken care of that and they would have been flamed from posting further.
Verified
1 year, 10 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal