Restaurateurs, meet your new overlord, Marissa Mayer. The Google honcho, fashionista and foodie just announced that the search giant has acquired the Zagat Guides, giving diners everywhere hope for reviews that suck slightly less than those on Yelp.
Are you that person who can never seem to put their phone down, even during meals? Yes? Well, you're obnoxious. And a majority of Americans agree, according to a new Zagat survey. Taking pictures of your meals is annoying too.
Zagat's strategy for its losing battle against foodie blogs and user-generated restaurant review sites: Claiming to be kindreds. Nina Zagat says the Zagat Survey was crowd-sourcing before it was cool. Yelp : Zagat :: Charles Darwin :: Alfred Wallace Russel. Who? Exactly. [HuffPo]
In his just-released book, The Man Who Ate the World, restaurant critic Jay Rayner explores the oft-overblown luxury dining of the world. In a scene from New York, the man behind the Zagat Survey—Mr. Tim Zagat himself—takes him on a whirlwind tour. It's fun to watch brash American Zagat embarrass Rayner, a Brit with a…
Manhattan User's Guide — who has a bit of history with ol' Tim and Nina — today takes a look at the just-released 2006 Zagat Survey, and, unsurprisingly, finds plenty of fault.
Zagat, the restaurant review of choice for uptown adventurers, wannabe foodies, and those who don't know any better, releases its 2006 edition today. We can't wait to see restauranteurs polish their meaningless "mentioned in Zagat's" window stickers to honor the occasion!
A few favorites:
· "Food tastes like socks"
· "If you were on fire, they wouldn't even throw a drink on you"
· "I cannot give credit to [this place] other than to praise them for hiring the mentally handicapped"
· "Grandma cooked like this, Grandpa died young"
Unfit for print [Zagat via MeFi]
