The short form. For those who like it short and sweet…

1. I will be handing out two free tickets for the Best Restaurants Party.
2. You post a comment below recommending a restaurant for FoodBurgh.
3. You make sure to include a valid email address with your comment
4. I randomly pick one of the valid entries on May 22 at 8:00am.
5. I broadcast the winner’s name on facebook and Twitter.
6. I email you details how how to get your tickets.

The long form. Now, for those who tolerate verbosity…

What is the best restaurants party? Pittsburgh Magazine collects a whole list of great Pittsburgh restaurants and gathers them all up in the convention center. You’ll find a booth for each restaurant along with samples, additional information, and some restaurant staff who can answer your questions. Who knows, you might even get a chance to talk to the chef.

I’ve actually never been out there before, but the photos from last year should give you some idea of what to expect. From what I can tell, it looks like a great time. Just think of it as the Steel City Big Pour of food…except it’s a little bit more expensive to get in with a correspondingly smaller crowd. In this case, that means you’ll have a little more space to spread out. I have two tickets of my own, and I’m definitely looking forward to giving it a try.

I suspect that if you read this blog, you’re probably hoping to get your hands on some tickets of your own. Consider this your chance.

Ground rules. The basic ask is that you post a comment below with a restaurant that I really need to visit (and write up in the blog). Tell me about that one place that you’ve been itching for me to write up. If you’re going to win, I need to have a way of contacting you, so it’s important to provide a valid email address when you fill in the comment. It won’t be made public, but I will be able to see it (and follow up if you win.) Once we hit the deadline, I’ll pick a winner at random.

The deadline is Saturday morning. Yes, I’m some sort of crazy morning person. I’ll be picking a name on Saturday morning and contacting the winner that day. I’ll also post the the winning entry to both my Twitter account and the FoodBurgh facebook page. I’ll also note it here on the blog in a post party wrap-up.

So what are you waiting for? Tell me where I need to go next!

So Long Star Ratings!

At the end of the day, every place is a little different. There are high points and low points, and condensing a very complex emotion that I have for a particular place into a single metric just isn’t workable. Sure, I could use a multi-variate scoring system, but that’s just complex and burdensome. I write this blog to call attention to restaurants than I want to promote, and a numeric scoring system doesn’t let me do that any more effectively.

If you want to know how I feel, read the review. If your pressed for time, then skip to the last paragraph or two, where I tend to summarize my thoughts. Even that is bound to give you a better perspective of how I feel than a single score.

I see two possible use cases for the FoodBurgh Meetup.

1. An opportunity to revisit some of my FoodBurgh favorites
2. An excuse to try out completely new destinations

I suspect most of my meetups will lean more toward (1), but I leave (2) open as a possibility. In fact, the first (pre-announcement) outing of the FoodBurgh Meetup was to a completely new place: Avenue B. As you can see form my write-up, heading out with a group gave me a chance to see far more menu items than I could have possible ordered alone.

That outing included mostly friends of mine that I had roped into the outing. Now that I’m actively promoting the group, I’m hoping that some of my readers will be inspired to come out and give it a try. I view the outings as an excellent way to meet people with a common culinary interest.

If a Meetup group sounds like a good idea to you, why not stop by the Meetup page and join the group. If your not a member of Meetup, it’s free and easy to sign-up. Some groups are better than others, but I’m a big fan of the overall operation.

It’s always nice to get some attention for FoodBurgh outside Urbanspoon, my friends, and my regular readers. I also think it’s good practice to point back at some ‘Burgh bloggers not finding their way into the article.

Who did Pop City miss?

• Burghilicious
• Corduroy Orange
• Brown Eyed Baker
• A Lusty Bit of Nourishment
• Snickie

Especially if your finding this page via a link, check those guys out.

One more thing, the photo of me was taken at 61C Cafe in Squirrel Hill, which is by far one of my favorite places to write up a review. Big thanks to the 61C baristas for letting Pop City do an impromptu photo shoot inside their cafe.

As of January 1 (just after midnight), that old theme has been led to pasture. The new theme was originally a minimalist design from styleshout.com and turned into a WordPress template by Linux Web Hosting (as you can see in the tagline at the bottom). I switched up some of the imagery and tweaked the style sheet slightly to better handle my content. Because it was designed to be minimal in form, my tweaks were a little bit easier to make in a clean way. It also provides a clean new look and a chance to switch up my color scheme to something a little bit brighter and more modern.

In any case, If you tend read my posts only via the RSS fee or email list, be sure to stop by the site and take a look. I’m pretty happy with my results.

Guidelines for future reviews. Call it a rubric; call it a score sheet; call it whatever. The basic idea: I’ve split out four categories and assigned point totals to each. The point totals across all categories total up to 50 points—corresponding fairly well to my original 5-star ratings.

Setting (10 pts)

• Was seating confusing?
• Was the server friendly?
• Did you feel welcome?
• Was everything clean?
• Did the decor fit the category?

Menu (15 pts)

• Was there more than one item you wanted to order?
• Were there (multiple) vegetarian options?
• If they served beer, was the selection decent?

Food (15 pts)

• Did you get what you expected?
• Was the portion right-sized?
• Was it flavorful?
• Was it well-presented?
• Any unpleasant extremes?

Overall (10 pts)

• Were you happy you went?
• Were you smiling when you left?
• Do you want to go back?
• Do they deserve your support?

More rational scoring. It’s still possible to over-score, but this provides a little bit more visibility into how I arrive at my numbers. From this point forward, I’m making a point to calibrate the 50% mark to places that hit my expectations. Under the new system, a solid restaurant that just isn’t much to write home about should get a 25/50 (2.5 stars). A place with a great atmosphere and lackluster food might end up with slightly more or slightly less than the 25 rating, but it certainly won’t hit the 4 star mark that seems to be common. I’ll also try to identify a good format for presenting the breakdown, so whatever the score, you’ll have some idea of how I got there.

Smells like beer to me. For those of you coming from the beer world, this may look familiar. I picked up the idea from the score sheet that we use for that beer judge (BJCP) study group that I’m keeping up with. Given my notion for what makes a 21-point beer versus a 35-point, I’m hoping I’ll have the right frame of mind to give a 2.1-star rating in those places where I would feel guilty about scoring someone that low on the basis of stars alone. Without the guidelines, 2.1 just sounds cruel; with the guidelines, at least it makes sense.

I’m interested in feedback on the issue, so comment away and let me know what you think.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about joining the masses, but what’s done and done. You can follow me on twitter.com/mikebeattie (also linked in the sidebar).

My personal take on Twitter is that it is not a way to establish notoriety. Nobody starts following someone on Twitter because they make great Tweets. Rather, I suspect that people follow others on Twitter because they’re already familiar with them through some other medium—that person is also a notable “personality” in their particular sphere. People follow that person on Twitter because they want to feel more closely associated (or at least keep tabs on their activity and thought processes).

From the perspective of the existing “personality,” Twitter represents two opportunities: 1) to remind interested parties that you still exist and 2) to provide more content to the group of people who were interested in receiving more anyway. These are basically the people who are willing to “spend” more attention time on the additional content.

I suppose at least part of Twitter’s success can be attributed to the fact that it responds simultaneously like this to needs of existing “personalities” and the people who follow them.

The bottom line is that this site is my “other medium.”

Franktuary Brings Local, Organic, Grass-Fed Beef Downtown
Locavore frank debuts during National Hot Dog Month

Pittsburgh, PA – Franktuary, a gourmet hot dog shoppe in Pittsburgh, PA, proudly introduces its newest menu item, the Locavore, a grass-fed, nitrate-free all-beef frankfurter from Ron Gargasz Organic Farm of Volant, PA. The Locavore will debut on July 1, as the kick-off to a month-long celebration of National Hot Dog Month.

This organic treat will complement the restaurant’s critically acclaimed traditional frankfurter and add to a growing list of locally made products — soda from the Natrona Bottling Company, pretzels from the Southside Pretzel Shop, and Miller’s Mustard. Weighing in at a sizable fifth of a pound, the Locavore will cost $4.75 but will be offered at a special July introductory price of only $4.25.

Consuming Franktuary’s Locavore has advantages beyond supporting sustainable farming practices and the regional economy: organic grass-fed beef offers a perfectly balanced ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fatty acids, a health benefit more commonly associated with wild-caught seafood. When essential fatty acids are consumed in proper balance the human body is less likely to experience inflammatory diseases. Ron Gargasz, a 30-year veteran of organic farming, has studied the Omega EFA content of his own beef in conjunction with Penn State University and knows these benefits to be the direct result of raising his cattle entirely on their natural diet of field grasses.

Organic pasture-raised beef is also free of unnecessary antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides. Franktuary owner Megan Lindsey, who enjoyed an early spring visit to the farm, was full of praise for the natural state of the barns and fields, and the generous nature of Gargasz himself. Lindsey remarks, “Ron is a wonderful person, setting an incredible example of hard work which supports the health of humans, animals, and the earth. He accomplishes all of this in a beautiful, peaceful setting, and Franktuary is proud to support his vision for farming.”

Franktuary is located at 325 Oliver Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. The establishment is a member of Pennsylvania’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local (www.buylocalpa.org). To learn more about the restaurant please visit www.franktuary.com.

For the original press release, visit Franktuary’s site, or just grab the PDF directly.

What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, hopefully not much. I’ll eat out, take some notes, and then write up what I think. If you’ve read any of my reviews, you’ll know that even the extremely positive ones are honest and willing to nitpick where necessary. That’s not going to stop because my meal was paid for. Honesty and full disclosure is rule one. If I don’t like what I eat, you’ll know.

The one benefit I really hope to pull out of this experience is the ability to interact with owners and pick their brains a little. I haven’t decided what format I’ll use to present that information (audio? text?), but it will definitely make it to this site for your benefit. From my perspective, that’s a real value add that I can give to little restaurants. The locals papers don’t have time for that kind of attention, but for at least a small set of establishments, I can make that kind of contribution to the information pool.

So far both restaurants have show interest in some sort of discussion/interview.

That said, I have one comment for restauranteurs: I tend to eat light meals that often lean vegetarian. Read back a few reviews, and you’ll find a slew of salads and primarily vegetarian meals. An all beef hot dog or rack of ribs does not fit the genre. I’ll eat the thing you want to promote, but you may be better off letting me pick something veggie. Just food for thought.

Beer Wars. I had a bit of an epiphany the other night while I was out watching Beer Wars with the members of one of our local homebrew clubs (TRASH). For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it’s a documentary on what you might call the “craft beer revolution” that has taken place over the past several years. The film followed a handful of craft brewers and did it’s best to get some camera time with the heads of the larger beer conglomerates. It feels like the goal was to present an ongoing battle, in which 1400 craft brewers fight to hold their own against the handful (now two?) major brewing conglomerates that produce 95% of the beer consumed by Americans.

This site has goals?Serving as almost a “mental backdrop,” the movie reminded me of my intentions for this site: promoting the little guys in the Pittsburgh food scene. I’m talking about the upstarts, the long-standing traditions, and the guys who have made it: everyone. The list of establishments is long and includes representatives of many different stages and trajectories, and I think it’s important that they all have an advocate on the web. Some of them have blogs or even a cult following and thus a voice of their own, but others lack any medium to state their case.

Huh? Their case? Yes: their case. By that, I mean the singular vision that keeps them going. The statement they try to make with their existence. In my experience, any small privately owned venture has a case to make to a would-be customer–what separates them from everyone else. I tend to be fascinated and inspired by each of those individual stories. Each motivating theme plays a tremendous role in the experience the provide and sometimes even explains any perceived shortcomings. Basically, I want to help give them a chance to be told.

What does this mean? Well, it explains why I was so taken aback when I managed to offend 21st Street Coffee. I think I have a pretty good idea of their motives, and I managed to attack one of their foundations. For the future, it means that I will be making an effort to bring some of those stories to this site. I won’t stop writing reviews (and hopefully, I’ll even pick up a little). I won’t stop being critical where criticism is required. I will make an effort to reach out to interesting establishments and get input from their owners and employees to explain their vision and dreams.

So is this a bad idea? A great idea? An idea that you don’t think I can pull off? I’d love to hear your comments. If you have any local connections (or run a local restaurant), feel free to contact me directly.