Yelp about Columbus, an obituary of dead restaurants
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
A woman “I know” in California is not a fan of Yelp.
I had been invited, joined Yelp and forgot about it. When the California woman mentioned Yelp and said “don’t ever do Yelp” (or something like that… ) I went online and did some reviews. Perverse? Me? You bettcha.
I can’t say much about the CA woman’s beef with Yelp because she shared it semi privately. I think it was mostly a misunderstanding… It has to do with reviews she posted herself. About herself. It does not seem to be the point of “yelping.” I think she may have run into “the Yelp Elite Squad” … more about them below.
Anyway her saying “don’t use Yelp” sent me to Yelp… to try to do a restaurant review while the experience is fresh in my brain. I found a bunch of old dead restauarants, some that I still mourn. I did obits for those restaurants.
The Baja Fresh in Worthington was my favorite place for lunch until they suddenly closed, two years ago? Three years ago?
The Baja Fresh at Polaris was one of my favorite places for dinner until they closed suddenly (same time as the Worthington Baja Fresh) a couple of years ago.
La Costa on Worthington-Galena… my other favorite place for dinner… I think it closed just weeks after Baja Fresh … a conspiracy to deny me of Mexican food?
Those three restaurants came up with address on Yelp … or former address just by putting the restaurant name in. So I reviewed them and did an R.I.P.
Yelp did not have the info on the Bone Fish Grill at Polaris…which is still open which I wanted to do a review of… but why should I look up an address… maybe I don’t really get Yelp. Do I like… or dislike any restaurant, service enough to do the research to do a review? What’s in it for me? Making Yelp a better place?
I did do reviews for two still very much alive (I hope) Central Ohio Mexican restaurants, including one of my favorites, La Hacienda Real on Sinclair.
Pierre Calzadilla invited me to Yelp. Pierre is with Trulia.com a real estate web 2.0 company.
Yelp even has an “Elite Squad” of “the coolest yelpers.”
“The Yelp Elite Squad is a crack team of the coolest yelpers. The kind of people who love to write colorful, witty reviews about the places they dig or detest and everything in between. They are the people that tip you off to the little hole in the wall eatery you never knew existed or a doctor you can trust. They are trendsetters and influencers, both on and off the site. We created the Yelp Elite Squad as a way of recognizing these star members.
Applicants always have lots of reviews of great local businesses and services, but more importantly the Yelp members that get in are known for having reviews that are insightful, irreverent and personal. “
I am not cut out for that, I don’t have that much passion about anything… really. I’ll just write the Yelp Columbus restaurant obits.
