Rob Answers the Most Frequently Asked Questions from Readers of DOWR
How did you become a restaurant critic?
I grew up in a family of foodies. My grandmother had tremendous talent in the kitchen. She could do it all: French, Italian, Hungarian, and Russian. And she passed her recipes down to my mother and aunt, who were incredible cooks in their own right. And they passed down to me the lifelong joy of experiencing a wonderful meal.
When I finished grad school at U of Michigan and came down to teach at UT, my wife and I enrolled in a wine course at the student union: first reds, then whites, then champagnes, then reds again. We were hooked. We got involved with the UT Faculty foreign foods club and had monthly dinners featuring the cuisine of a different country. The job of purchasing the wine for these dinners inevitably fell to me.
We had no children then and had the free time necessary to cook some truly delicious meals at our home: Chinese black pepper noodles one night, Escargot in pastry crust, even a lightly pounded and breaded Vienerschnitzel with handmade spetzels and red cabbage. We had a ball.
My life changed in many ways a few years later. We had our first daughter and I left academia and started a market research firm. One of our first clients was Ch. 36 TV here in Austin. This was easily 23-24 years ago. One night, in a strategy session, someone brought up the idea of a weekly restaurant review show. The details are a bit fuzzy (it might have had something to do with this killer potato salad I made for the station picnic) but somehow the reviewer wound up being me. The audience seemed to like it and I had a ton of fun doing it. But my travel schedule was too rigorous to commit to the show for any length of time. Nonetheless, as I traveled to many major US cities as well as foreign ports of call in my market research career, my passion for learning about and sampling various cuisines continued unabated.
Fast forward to 1998. We’d just finished a major research study for 590 KLBJ-AM radio. The lifestyle preferences section of the research indicated a strong interest in dining out among listeners to news and talk radio in the Austin area. As part of our report, we suggested initiating a restaurant show. I had no plans to host the show but a series of serendipitous events unfolded and voila, there I was back on the air again. Thus, the “Roving Gourmet” was born. I must admit, I really enjoyed it. Then, Danny Baker, the GM of Fox 7 TV called and asked if I would like to do the show on TV as well. OK, so a bit more “roving” was in store. That was in 1999. I just celebrated my 9th and 8th anniversaries respectively on KLBJ-AM and FOX 7. When you love what you do, finding the time is easy.
The next year, inspired by dot com mania in Austin, we launched www.diningoutwithrobbalon.com. It was hardly an overnight success. But we worked on it, refined it, and really concentrated on the content and building the brand. Today, the site has an incredible audience and is a major force on the net in central Texas.
So that’s how it call got started. I never planned for it to happen. Never attended formal cooking school or even worked in a restaurant. But those are not the most important criteria for what I do. What matters most is being able to write about food and wine with some wit and insight and to be able to communicate the essential elements that define a restaurant worth going to. And more than anything, you’ve got to be passionate about the art of cooking. There is nothing more boring than a food critic who just dials it in or worse, one who deliberately eviscerates a restaurant, just because he has the bully pulpit.
And other questions that I am frequently asked:
How much do you dine at home these days?
Rarely. My wife makes me Chicken Paprikash on my birthday. Occasionally we’ll throw a steak or some burgers on the grill. I’ve watched many of Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meals programs with interest but have yet to attempt one.
How do you choose new restaurants to review?
I receive a lot of emails each week with suggestions for new restaurants. These are very helpful. Sometimes, I just get in my car and drive, making note of places that are new or seem interesting. And then sometimes, as Robbie Robertson said, “I just let the wind push me that way.”
How many times do you visit a restaurant before posting a review?
At least two times over a two-month period. And sometimes I’ll do a third visit if the first one was unsatisfactory.
Why don’t you do more negative reviews?
Here’s the way I see it: I prefer to spend the valuable time I have telling people WHERE to go as opposed to telling them WHERE NOT to go. There are too many excellent little restaurants that fail each year simply because they’ve gone undiscovered. And I’ve never been fond of the nails-across-the-blackboard type of reviewing anyway. Too many critics (and some jaded readers) seem to revel in this obnoxious style.
Typically, if I am not fond of a place, I will simply not write about them. Trust me, word travels faster about a truly bad place (because there are fewer of them) than all the good ones that are trying to get noticed.
What do you look for when reviewing a restaurant?
I am all about the food: flavors, textures, aromas that linger with me after a meal. I also look for what a chef does with his soups. You can almost always tell whether or not a restaurant is going to be any good by the soup. At finer-dining restaurants, I am also into presentation and plating. It’s part of the aesthetic experience for me. But as you know, it’s not all fine dining for me: I’ve reviewed many a burger and comfort food joint as well.
I do not tend to get irritated over noise in the dining room (this is Austin, after all), the extraneous TV on somewhere, or the waiter who wasn’t prompt in filling my water glass. I recognize that we’re not in New Orleans. We have very few professional waiters here. I make allowances for that.
You seem to focus on owner-operated restaurants almost exclusively.
That’s true. My vision of Armageddon is to drive down 183 and see an endless stream of Joe’s Crab Shacks, Olive Gardens, Applebee’s and Red Lobsters. As Diamond Jim Brady once said, “the heart and soul of a people can be observed in their restaurants.” The owner operated joints and the chef-driven restaurants are much more interesting anyway. Much more color and individuality. And these people lay it ALL on the line every night. You are only as good as your last meal in this business and the challenges at an owner-operated place are huge: but so is the satisfaction of seeing a lot of smiling faces in your dining room.
Are you comfortable accepting advertising from restaurants on your site? Isn’t that a conflict?
First, let me point out that virtually every newspaper (daily or weekly, magazine, radio or TV station, or web site that has a food critic or has a restaurant review column) accepts advertising from restaurants. So while I may be fond of altruism, I also have to make a living.
There’s no conflict because reviews are not for sale on our site. Some of the restaurants I review advertise on our site. Some do not. It’s as simple as that. That is also true for the Statesman, Chronicle, etc.
It’s also true that we occasionally turn down requests from certain restaurant advertisers because I’m just not comfortable promoting those restaurants. I think we may be unique among local advertising media in this respect.
If you have more questions for Rob, feel free to write him at info@diningoutwithrobbalon.com.
