Anyway, this is what most Yelp Elite parties are like: typically a Tuesday or Wednesday night, almost always 7pm - 9pm, and a long line to get in when you arrive a bit before 7. Seems like a good 75% of Eliters are in their twenties, which makes for a very young crowd. Drinks are free - usually a limited drinks menu, but the Yelptini cocktail is usually available. And boy, do Yelpers drink - often at these events the bartenders look like they don't know what's hit them. They just keep making those drinks as fast as they can for the crowd at the bar that never seems to wane (though actually, the first 30-45 minutes are usually the most crowded at the bar - the lines do seem to die down a bit after that).
ALWAYS eat before a Yelp party, because even if it's at a restaurant, there's never much food. Last night I got about two bites of steak and some fries - or, one bite of food per cocktail (three lemony Spring Flings and a sip of merlot that I then rejected, if you're counting). It's funny, at normal cocktail parties, the waiters can circulate with their trays of food. At Yelp parties, waiters bearing food take no more than three steps before Yelpers swarm about them like locusts, quickly devouring whatever's on the tray. Oh! I also tried a shooter of some sort - tasted somewhat seafood-y with soy sauce. Shooters are just a weird food, I don't see the point.
When I first started coming to these parties a couple of years ago, I was very into the scene and meeting other people. Now, I just see it as an opportunity to hang out with my chosen +1 for the evening (JJ, last night, who enjoyed her first Yelp party. "How often do they have these?", she asked), and enjoy some free drinks and bits of food. Though I still do end up talking to other folks. They tend to be a colorful bunch; the couple we shared a table with last night told us that they met through a Craigslist's Casual Encounters ad.
Though I still enjoy these Yelp parties, I'm definitely over the Yelp "scene" (DYLs, etc.), not that I was ever that into it in the first place. So why continue Yelping? In a way, it's been like a blog - an online scrapbook of my restaurant, shopping, even hiking experiences over the last three years. And just as I find other reviews helpful, I do think that my reviews help others sometimes.
However, the other day I got a cupcake at That Takes the Cake (and here it is - the first cupcake mention! Because if you are a twenty- or thirty-something woman blogging in a metropolitan area, you have to talk about cupcakes because THAT'S THE LAW.). I reviewed TTtC back in November of '08 shortly after it opened, and gave it a lackluster review. The cupcakes were dry and not very flavorful - I wasn't impressed. I decided to give it another chance, so I went in and got a Red Velvet cupcake. And in the year and a half since my last visit, things did not improve - it was AWFUL. It just tasted synthetic, and the frosting had that crusty quality that cream gets when it sits around for awhile. Immediately I began composing a negative follow-up review in my head.
Don't do it!
And then I stopped and thought about it. Some girl who loved baking decided to go for it and open up a bakery. And people must like her cupcakes, because years later, she's still in business. Who was I to piss all over her dream? I felt a little bit bad. On the other hand, cupcakes are $3 a pop -- don't people deserve to know that they can just walk a few blocks to Kara's and get a vastly superior cupcake???
I looked up the reviews. 330+ reviews and an average four and a half star rating. Are these people mad??? I guess this place will go on despite what I think. Just as well...closed up storefronts are a depressing sight.
Cool blogpost. I totally hear you on the impact of bad reviews and how it's so sad because you're raining on someone's dream. I do think that businesses can benefit from honest and constructive feedback. It's a fine balance, but you already know that.
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