It’s the food, stupid

January 30

Time for a new poll.
For the last one, I asked you to give the main reason you pick the restaurants you choose to eat in.
One guy responded via my Twitter account with a whole list, presumably ranked in order of importance: Location, taste, price, value, staff, cleanliness. But of the 21 of you who responded on the blog, 57 percent said you went to restaurants because you like the food. Nineteen percent of you helped justify the adage that the three most important things a restaurant needs to succeed are location, location and location.
Here, for the record, is the full list of responses to the question: "When choosing a restaurant, what is usually the most important factor?"

Location: 4 (19%)
Whether I like the food: 12 (57%)
The amount of time I’ll have to spend there: 0 (0%)
Quality of service: 1 (4%)
Whether I know the owners or people who work there: 3 (14%)
Price: 0 (0%)
Ambience: 0 (0%)
Coupons or other promotions: 0 (0%)
I go where my dining companions want to go: 0 (0%)
Other: 1 (4%)

You’ll notice that 14 percent of respondents said they choose a restaurant based on whether they know the owners or people who work there, an indication that many Food Writer's Diary readers are industry insiders.
And that leads to our next question, about this blog’s parent, Nation’s Restaurant News, the paper of record of the foodservice industry.
It’s really a three-part question: Do you read NRN? Do you read it in print or online? Do you read it at work or at home?
Answer as much of it as you like. Click away. Go crazy. Feel free to comment below if you feel like elaborating.
And thank you for your time.

Many Food Writer’s Diary readers count calories

January 20

Apologies for my silence over the past week. I’m not ignoring you, just, you know, meeting deadlines and stuff. But I have many exciting stories of blowfish and book launches, casseroles and sheet cakes.

But if nothing else, I need a new poll, because the old one has closed.
I asked Food Writer's Diary readers if posting of calorie information on menus would affect what you order.
If you don’t eat at chain restaurants in New York City, the question is theoretical, but here in the Big Smoke such information has been on menus and menu boards of chains with 15 or more units (nationwide) since mid-July. Similar laws are likely to sweep the nation sooner rather than later.
Thirty-two of you were kind enough to participate in the poll. These are the results:

WOULD POSTING OF CALORIE INFORMATION ON MENUS AFFECT WHAT YOU ORDER?

Yes: 15 (46%)

No: 9 (28%)

Maybe: 8 (25%)

If you feel like participating in a new poll, I'd like to ask why you pick the restaurants you do.

Thank you.

Who are you?

January 8

Thanks to the 48 readers who participated in my survey of who you are. A quarter of those who responded are amateur food enthusiasts, slightly fewer than that are chefs. The amateurs all chimed in when I reminded my Twitter followers of the survey. One respondent is a self-proclaimed celebrity chef. One of those who ticked “other” commented that he or she was a sommelier.
Participants were allowed to pick more than one answer, and a lot of them did, which is why there are 65 responses from the 48 participants.
And now I’ll put up a new poll, about one of the hot-button issues in foodservice these days: Posting calorie information on menus and menu boards.

The question was, Who are you?
The answers were thus:

Chef at an independent restaurant: 5 (10%)
Chef at a chain: 3 (6%)
Fine dining chef: 3 (6%)
Chef at a non-restaurant foodservice operation: 1 (2%)
an NRN subscriber: 5 (10%)
Celebrity Chef: 1 (2%)
Journalist: 9 (18%)
Foodservice supplier or manufacturer: 1 (2%)
Amateur food enthusiast: 12 (25%)
Food Writer’s Diary fan: 5 (10%)
Publicist: 12 (25%)
unrelated in any way to foodservice: 4 (8%)
Other: 4 (8%)
Total voters: 48

Celebrity chef poll results

December 15

What smart people the readers of Food Writer's Diary are! You understand the complexities of life and shy away from yes-and-no answers to questions.
So when I asked you if you thought celebrity chefs were good for the foodservice industry, a whopping 40 percent of respondents, instead of ticking "Yes," "No," or "They used to be but they aren't anymore," said "It's more complicated than that."

Here are the full results from 66 respondents:

Yes: 18 (27%)
No: 7 (10%)
They used to be but they aren’t anymore: 14 (21%)
It's more complicated than that: 27 (40%)

Since you are such deep people, I’d like to find out more about who you are, so my new poll asks you exactly that. You may choose more than one answer.

Thanks for participating.

Food Writer’s Diary readers prefer Wendy’s

December 1

The results of the Food Writer’s Diary Big 3 U.S. Burger Chain poll are in, and 42 percent of the 119 participants said Wendy’s was their favorite. Nine percent said they’d never eaten at a Big 3 U.S. burger chain, which means that they likely live in very poor developing countries, are really irredeemable snobs, or liars.

The full results:

“Pick Your Favorite of the Big 3 U.S. Burger Chains”

McDonald’s: 29 (24 percent)
Burger King: 28 (23 percent)
Wendy’s: 51 (42 percent)
I have never eaten at any of these: 11 (9 percent)

Thank you for participating. A new poll has been posted. I await the results with bated breath.