Lincolnite

I couldn

Much like Korbelik says this was his worst experience, I found it to be far and away his worst review.

Note: I have no affiliation with Tilted Kilt. I don’t mind if they succeed, and I won’t campaign for them to fail. Let the market decide.

I did eat there on their trial run day, before they opened (dumb luck / good timing ... no connections). I found the food to be excellent bar food. The service was fine, and the speed was fine - and there was kitchen chaos. My wife got the wrong order, and it was fixed in minutes. All the food was warm, and we both enjoyed it.

Again, it’s great bar food. I don’t expect it to win James Beard awards.

The issues I have with this review are sort of two-fold. First, specifically to this visit, why on Earth wait for 90 minutes to eat. If it’s only so you can call them out in print, that’s petty. Had it been a regular date or evening out, anyone would have asked for a manager, or simply gotten up to leave. Waiting for such a long time, in this case, feels like a set-up.

Secondly, inherent to all his reviews, he starts with a bias against chain restaurants. He pretty much makes that clear if you read his “reviews” consistently, and I read them every week. Many who have commented on this very site over the years do, too. That’s fine, if they aren’t your thing. However, it shouldn’t impact a “review.”

You can find many other features where he’s had a bad service experience, and then given a reason why it could be, and he’s gone on to give a second chance or say that he plans to.

Something just seems fishy about this one from the get-go.

(Note: IMHO, the LJS is guilty of this with movie reviews, too. Read any reviews by L. Kent - there’s a high likelihood if the movie is showing at the Ross, it will get an A or a B+ - as though they never, ever show a turd. Reviews of movies that play elsewhere seldom fare as well, as though there is a built-in pro-Indie, or anti-blockbuster bias. I take it all with a grain of salt, and still choose to describe even though the LJS treats me like shit as a customer.)

* subscribe, not describe. I should proof my work.

I had a similar experience at a very prominent Lincoln restaurant about four years ago and I haven’t gone back.

It was a bad review, but I chalk that up to Korbick’s perfectly understandable frustration, and the LJS’ half-assed way of doing reviews. I strongly doubt anything fishy was involved.
It is incredibly frustrating to be treated this way in a restraint, but it does happen, even in good places (I waited over 1 hr 45 minutes for food at Wasabi years ago, and never went back again).

Fletch (love the screenname BTW)

I guess I’ve never noticed a bias against chains in Korblick’s reviews (I mean he seems to love sportsbars, keno parlors and gas station pizza for crying out loud).
I just don’t like his taste in general, and think he’s a bad reviewer. Compare him with any review in the OWH and his faults become obvious, his silly grades, his lack of food knowledge, his obsession over the minutia of decor and wait staff chit-chat.
I guess I tend to look at things less as “chain v local”, and more as “prepared from scratch food v. came from a sysco truck”, and with this haven’t really noticed any bias in Korblick’s reviews.

I’ll also disagree about L. Kent too, remember there’s a large selection bias at work, pretty much every major studio release will play at the grand, good and bad. While the Ross is able to select a couple of the thousands of independent and foreign films released every year to show. Plus, since L Kent isn’t exactly Pauline Kael, he’s more likely just to comment on how well-made a film is, not for example criticize something like Beast of the Southern Wild, for being “poverty porn”, or “white guilt” etc etc.

Anyways, just wondering, but are we as Lincolnites too critical of the LJS? Or maybe critical, but for the wrong reasons?
I love mocking it as much as the next guy, and I don’t think it’s unfair, but it does seem, I dunno, incorrect at times.
On multiple occasions I’ve heard the paper called out for both liberal and conservative biases, for being part of some sort of agenda pushing cabal of Lincoln
elites, and for being the enemy of progress in the city. I don’t read Cindy (/line break)Lange(/line break)Kubieck(/line brask) but the names she gets called really don’t seem deserving of a nice human interest reporter.
I guess I’d prefer the paper be called out for its poor reporting and fluff (the 402 section, has basically become a public Facebook wall for the reporters) and less for perceived addends and biases.

What I found odd was the manager’s reaction to Korbelik’s complaints. The LJS publishes their food critic’s picture and every Lincoln restaurant manager should know what he looks like. The local paper’s food critic is the most important person to any restaurant. The local food critic can either make you or break you. If the manager treats the food critic that poorly, imagine how he reacts to other customer complaints. Can we start a pool to wager how long TK is in business?

My impression from both formal and informal reviews of Tilted Kilt so far is that the management is either weak or inconsistent. TK is a big chain so they clearly know how to operate a restaurant. Bad local management could easily torpedo all of that institutional know-how.

I’m not sure how long TK will be in business, but I wouldn’t put my money on the head manager lasting much longer.

Anyways, just wondering, but are we as Lincolnites too critical of the LJS?

You raise some good points in your paragraph, and as you know the answer to your (semi-rhetorical) question is yes and no. The hubbub over partisan “bias” is just silly. And let’s face it, the LJS is BY FAR the best source for local news. But they do some really annoying things as well. Funny thing is, I don’t think most of their employees would deny that.

Are we too critical of the LJS? Maybe, maybe not. I long ago gave up on the idea of liberal/conservative as it relates to the paper. I think it clearly skews one way, and I accept that as I read it and don’t give it a thought.

Where I tend to get critical, I think they deserve it. They are the point of record for the city in many respects. With that, I think they have a duty and responsibility to the population that goes beyond just making a profit. I don’t begrudge them a profit, if they can make one, by the way.

Here’s where I am critical:

Columnists tend to let their biases show through, for example (coughcough Don Walton coughcough). If you are going to be a columnist, then be one. If you are a reporter, than be one. Don’t send a columnist to do a reporter’s job, or write a “story” with “opinion” put in there.

They make a lot of mistakes. Dumb mistakes. Typos in headlines, bad grammar, etc. I presume English is taught in journalism school, and that they hire journalist graduates. Correctly using “it’s” and “its” shouldn’t be an issue. Any idiot with Microsoft Word can run things through a grammar and spelling checker, and those things should be caught. Theoretically, there are also editors that should proof this stuff.

The paywall is its own topic. I’m not a fan, but I see why they have it. The execution of it bothers me more than the idea of it. I am a 7-day subscriber to the print version, and have been for 20 years or more. I don’t think I should have to pay for the same content twice. If they want to charge non-subscribers, I get it. Of course anyone with an iPad or similar device, subscriber or not, can get the same info for free. Makes no sense.

Also, I am a firm believer with the paywall, that if there is a news event that impacts the safety of one or more people - a missing child (Amber Alert), or missing person, or imminent weather threat, etc. - if they want people to come to their site, repeatedly, for latest details, that stuff should go in front of the paywall.

Their social media efforts are perplexing. Many of them do a good job, some not so much. They don’t seem to take criticism very well, collectively speaking.

If you print a paper than can call out a place publicly like they did with Tilted Kilt (which I have no issues with, even if I disagree), they should be able to take flak with customers who criticize them. Doing things like blocking their customers on Twitter, for example, are puzzling.

#UnblockFletch

I would agree. I watched the Undercover Boss episode featuring the President or CEO. Seems like a good organization at the top that has standards and goals. Sounds like, thus far, this unit isn’t hitting the mark in the kitchen or with customer service. Read the LJS comments and it’s full of stories of bad service. However, most of them say it’s busy, so they must be doing some volume. Maybe the review will be a wake-up call. Hopefully someone higher up than Lincoln will see it.

“The issues I have with this review are sort of two-fold. First, specifically to this visit, why on Earth wait for 90 minutes to eat. If it

There’s a name for that.

George, I can see that. I’ve had the same thing at the Chipotle by South Pointe (which I brought to the attention of corporate, after the fact. The second time, I included pictures.)

For me, it would be different if I was seated, and people around me, who came after me, were getting their food. If I was #1 and waiting an hour+, but tables number #2 and #3 and so on were also waiting, I’m right with you.

However, if I am at table #1, and suddenly #2 and #3 get served while I am still waiting, I’m talking to someone, getting comped, or leaving (or a combination of the three).

Fletch - Reasonable people can probably disagree on what the best response is to a service screw-up like this. But, I have to say I find it a real stretch to suggest Jeff used it as an opportunistic “set-up” to blast TK because he’s pursuing an anti-chain agenda. Most critics would go nuclear if food wasn’t there in 45 minutes. This was twice that amount. I’m also uneasy with questioning Jeff’s professional integrity so cavalierly.

By the way I do agree with you that LJS could do things differently, and unjustifiably blocking tweeters who are critical of them is poor practice.

I was quite surprised by this review, as I did not think it was possible for Korbelik to give an establishment anything below a lukewarm “not my cup of tea, but let’s offend a potential advertiser” review - and this is guy who has reviewed the pizza at Casey’s, and a number of fast casual places.

But let’s face it, I don’t take a lot of stock in what Korbelik writes about restaurants.  He tends to go to new places too soon, spends way too long talking about the history of the owner or building, is anti-chain, has a weird habit of ordering tongue at Mexican places, and offers painfully non-descript adjectives for the food he eats (“good”, “tasty”, “delicious”, etc.)

I just wish the LJS would structure their reviews similar to what the OWH does - the reviewer is never pictured, multiple visits, detailed descriptions of food and taste, and is not afraid to say the food stinks.

I don’t think there is any bias against Tilted Kilt or their objectification of women.  I truly believe that Korbelik would equally trash any other place in town given the same poor service.  I just wish he’d do the same when the food stinks.