Many of the folks who read this blog know that I used to be a frequent Chowhound poster who was asked to leave after refusing to bend to Jim Leff's will after being accused of "shilling".
I've refrained from posting about it on Gastronomie primarily because at the end of the day, it's Jim's sandbox, and he can do whatever he wants, I suppose. And, the truth is that there are a whole lot of really friendly, kind, active posters over there who, in their own words, "put up with his arrogance" in an effort to create a nice little community for themselves.
But I discovered something today, while researching dining options in Chicago for an upcoming conference, that really pissed me off.
In this thread about Sweet & Savouries restaurant (caution: link has audio), one woman posted a very negative comment about being refused an a la carte menu, despite there being one on the restaurant's website. While I agree that this is a pretty unsettling situation to walk into, particularly if one has a budget to stick to, she never talked about the food, or the service, or anything else that supposedly makes Chowhound such a bastion for "don't-call-me-a-foodie" foodies.
Later in the thread, it becomes obvious that the discussion had veered into "off-topic huffiness" and in true Chowhound form, those posts had been promptly deleted. No surprise there, I thought.
Until. I went over to LTHForum and found this thread, which blows the whistle on the fact that David Richards, the proprietor and chef of Sweets & Savouries, posted a response to the original poster, advising that (a) on the night in question, the a la carte menu was, in fact, available and that several other tables had ordered from it and (b) he had refunded the full $400 tab back to the patron's credit card after receiving an email expressing her dissatisfaction.
Guess what? It was deleted, on the "moderator's" (censors?) whims. As were the posts following its deletion, asking the original poster to clarify whether she had, in fact, been comped.
Here's the REALLY ironic part about all this: the LTH thread wasn't even all that complimentary towards the restaurant. But -- and here's what distinguishes one man's playground from a REAL community -- the thread evolved. And a real discussion was had. And no one's posts were deleted.
I'm not saying all this to bash Chowhound, or to tell you not to frequent the site. Because, really, it can be a good resource (obviously, since I'm still using it for research). Just be aware that you may be getting a somewhat narrow, "houndish" view of the restaurant world.
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