Eat The Menu: The Saga of Zagat

Back in the day—I’m talking back in the 1990s—a Zagat dining guide for each prominent American city defined where foodies would—and wouldn’t—eat. It started out in New York (natch!), when hipster couple Ted and Nina Zagat, who ate out two or three times a day, started handing out mimeo’d sheets of their opinionated restaurant ratings to eager friends.

Fueled by success, the Zagats decided to publish their restaurant ratings—over 300 in NYC alone—and sell the annual guidebook. Soon, dining destinations like Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco had their own Zagat-sponsored annual restaurant guides, too.

During this decade of dining furor, I served as editor for a local book publisher, who asked me to help out pushing our titles at an annual NYC book fair. While taking a break from our booth in Manhattan, I spotted Ted Zagat manning his own booth and let him know that we had dining worth discovering back in flyover land: “Please consider publishing a book rating Twin Cities restaurants,” I pled.

Not only did he decide to do just that: He asked me to edit the project.

Long story short, here’s how I went about it, per Ted and Nina’s instructions. First, I combed my brain and telephone directories (remember those?) to amass a list of over 300 Twin Cities independent restaurants of note (no chains from other cities allowed), then distributed a list of them on a long form, which was to be filled in by any and every avid eater who cared to participate (and thus earn a free copy of the published book). I distributed this form to hotels, restaurants, the convention center, community groups, libraries–wherever I could think of.

Diners were asked to rate each restaurant at which they’d eaten in the past year or so on four standards: food quality, ambience, service, and value for money. Comments like “Great!” and “Terrific!” stood no chance of being included, so participants knew to be as clever as they could in their responses. (Example: In talking of Matt’s Bar, it re: a “neighborhood bar” that’s “cramped and dark and cheap-looking (the way I love it)”, where “everything is exactly as it should be”, “attitude and all.”)

These forms were returned to the New York office, where they were collated and printed out, restaurant by restaurant, for me to use in forming the comment to be published in the actual guidebook.

Not as easy as it sounds, for that exact Zagat formula demanded that the total review (25 words or so) run as one loooong sentence, incorporating the whole picture. And with wit and panache.

When published, the guidebook also listed the Top Ten cafes in several categories—for instance, by type of cuisine—Italian, French, etc.; romantic settings; dining with kids; scenic vistas; Sunday brunch. Then followed the entry for each restaurant, along with a numerical score for its food, ambience, service, and a price point for a dinner of appetizer, entrée and dessert.

Here’s a typical example. Survey participants’ remarks (those in quotes) are strung together thus:, with diners’ quotes strung together by me:

Alma (American food) 29 [out of a possible 30 points] for food), 25 (ambience), 28 (service) and $55 (cost of one average dinner in 2013)

Dinkytown 528 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis, (612) 379-4909, www.restaurantalma.com

“Alma does the soul good” rave reviewers of this Dinkytown “sleeper” where ingredients from “local farmers” inspire “exceptional” cooking by chef-owner Alexander Roberts that’s “always a pleasure” (with “something surprising every time”); “elegant” yet “unpretentious” with a “superb” staff, it’s “a bit expensive but worth it” for a “romantic evening”, ”entertaining business guests”, or “just dinner with friends.”

And the list goes on, for over 300 entries. Just for the record, the Cities’ top-rated restaurants in 2013, in order of popularity,  were: Travail, Alma, La Belle Vie, Lake Elmo Inn, Lucia’s, Capital Grille, Craftsman, Meritage, and Matt’s Bar. Ten “Other Noteworthy Places” followed: Axel’s, Bachelor Farmer, Big Bowl, Doolittle’s, 5-8 Club, Heidi’s, Kincaid’s, 112 Eatery, Saffron and Victory 44.

Gone are the days of patrons carrying around the distinctive little red food bibles; now, of course, foodies hop online and feel free to add their own opinions. And the city’s dining scene continues to evolve and flourish.