Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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The publisher of the Guide, produced annually since 1951, has taken the decision to cease publication (although they will retain the brand name). Originally produced by the not-for-profit Consumers Association and, for the last seven years, by supermarket chain Waitrose, the Guide is the country’s premier eating-out publication. With its lack of London-centricity, the annual inspection of restaurants by its professional staff, coupled with reviews from customers, it probably more accurately reflects the best of British eating, far better than the Michelins. It is the “bible”.
On a personal level, this is a big loss. It’s my source document for finding good eats when I’m away from my home area. And I’ve contributed reviews to it since pre-internet days. Those reviews which I might now post on Hungry Onion and/or Tripadvisor are there only because I’ve already written and sent them to the GFG.
Whoa, that’s not happy news. Might there be a possibility of the guide being sold to another publisher?
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
3
I guess that Waitrose would have explored selling it on before reaching the decision to close. Although they have not given any reason for closure, I suppose it was not making a profit. In itself, that surprises me a bit. There really isnt an online equivalent to the Guide and other publications are either limited in their scope or, indeed, in their detail about places.
I guess Michelin might be interested. But not sure this would a very good news for the local. Michelin in France has tried to give an open and younger image by buying the local Fooding guide which is trendy and popular with the youth. Result, the Michelin guide becomes less conservative, the Fooding proposes more refined food.
I feel your pain. A crowd-sourced tool in yachting is something called ActiveCaptain. It sold a few years ago and has deteriorated. Still, I refer to it and sometimes find myself reading a great and helpful review only to get to the bottom and find it is something I wrote some years ago. grin
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
6
Perhaps, given publicity, someone will be moved to step in. Either deep pockets or business creativity would seem in order as Waitrose probably wouldn’t have closed it down if it was making even a little money.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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I agree. The GFG’s website has the Guide’s full set of reviews (about 1200 restaurants) available for a small annual subscription (at the level of the the purchase price for the print copy). Maybe online only would reduce costs and be the way to go. And perhaps some realignment of the professional inspections - perhaps not every establishment needs an annual inspection.
Little stickers businesses can buy if they are rated to put on their doors. Leveraging coverage to get content as opposed to advertising to draw in more reviewers. Can restaurants respond to comments? Sell sponsorships - you can’t delete or edit a review but you can respond. Just thinking.
Offering a guide like that online would be the way to bring it forward. But of course that requires a team of specialists and investment that the owners either weren’t willing or weren’t able to put together.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
11
No. And my apologies for using the word “review”. What the Guide publishes is a brief summary - maybe a couple of paragraphs or so - of an inspection report and comments from diners. It is an act of vanity that I always look first at the restaurants which I reviewed to see if any of my remarks have been included. Quite often, they are.
For example, the write-up on my favourite South Asian place.
“Everything you want from a neighbourhood restaurant”, notes one reader who loves everything about this hospitable reasonably priced Indian. [That’s me!). At weekends you can lunch on Mumbai-style breakfast snacks such as medu vada (spiced letnil doughnuts) but there are ample riches on the main menu too: textbook bhel puri, Indo-Chinese chilli chicken and lai bhari ( a mild creamy dish of lamb or chicken pointed up with peanuts, tamarind and jaggery). plus sweet delights including a well matched combo of kulfi and falooda (that’s me again).
Ah. Curated. I’ve mentioned ActiveCaptain before as crowd-sourced. There is a competitor called Waterway Guide that is curated like GFG. I’ve had long discussions with the Editor-in-Chief about the relative merits of the two approaches. I participate in both and don’t have a strong opinion. Both have their place.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
13
Another condemnation of the closure in today’s Guardian. I was interested to read Martin Kettle’s comment about the Guide not being dominated by London. He goes on to mention five places that he’d never have found without the Guide. I’ve been to three of them and would also not have otherwise found them - the Drunken Duck at Ambleside, Ubiquitous Chip in
Glasgow and the Walnut Tree in Llanddewi Skirrid (and, no, I don’t know how to pronounce that, either).
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
14
Well, there’s “permanently ceased publication” and then there’s “permanently ceased publication”.
In this event, the permanent isnt that permanent. The brand has now been bought by CODE Hospitality (purchase agreed yesterday) who will publish the Guide and develop its online version. Elizabeth Carter will continue as editor and, presumably, the system will continue as previous - diners invited to submit reviews but,as well as using their experiences in the publication, each published restaurant will have been professionally reviewed, annually, by one of the Guide’s inspectors.
This is really good news.
And I’ve now got a couple of hours ahead of me sorting out the reviews I’ve written and poste dhere, but didnt send to what I assumed was a defunct GFG website.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
18
The Guide is now in its digital “soft launch” phase. I was invited to comment on the new look app.
Now , there was an immediate, and possibly terminal issue, for me. I am one of the minority of people who do not carry a mobile phone or similar device and rely on my PC for the internet. As such, I was unable to download the app. I wrote to the GFG expressing my disappointment but saying I understood they must be marketing to the demographics (in the UK, at least, the vast majority of people who do not have mobile phones are oldsters like me).
However, this afternoon, I had an email from the GFG saying that, whilst they are encouraging folk to use the app, there is a web based version of the Guide (which they had not yet advertised) And they’d welcome my £29.95 annual subscription and my continuing submission of restaurant reviews. So, I’ve coughed up the fee and, I have to say, they seem to have a done a good job. There’s a good search facility - vital if you want to use the Guide when you’re planning to travel. And a revamp of their scoring system which makes more sense. And a photo of the restaurant interior, which I think is a good idea.
