It turns out that Pete Wells can handle a barrage of questions better than Guy Fieri. The New York Times restaurant critic is currently subjecting himself to the curiosity of the general public, and in the midst of questions about the intricacies of being a prestigious Times critic (but no revelations about how to be a master of disguise, alas), Wells revealed that the bane of all restaurants, Yelp!, has actually helped him.
Given the amount of hate that surrounds the diner-reviewed aggregator, you’d think that someone like Wells would stay away from the site, but to be fair, he says he only uses Yelp! to find restaurants to review, particularly places that haven’t “received much attention yet from professional critics.”
“I wouldn’t say they inform my reviews, but they might be one factor that helps guide me when I’m deciding whether to check out a place I haven’t heard very much about,” he elaborated. “I don’t put much stock in the individual reviews but I do scan the bulk of them to look for common areas of delight or disapproval.”
What would make Yelp! better, however, is if there were a function that filtered out all the reviews based on brunch. “But that might not leave very much content,” he shrugged. Wells, you sassmonster.
For other answers to your burning questions, like whether we should all drink wine like Christopher Hitchens, click the link below. (Our answer: That’s the wrong beverage. Everyone should drink whiskey like Christopher Hitchens.)
[NYT]
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