Todays world is one of constant and instant information thanks to Facebook, Twitter and numerous other social networks. If you want information on a restaurant in Chicago to help you decide if you want to dine there or not, you can have it in the palm of your hand within seconds. I use sites such as Yelp or Urban Spoon to help me decide on places I don't know much about. I want to hear what other people have to say. If a friend recommends a place to me, it goes a long way. It's only logical to read what other customers have to say about a certain restaurant I am interested in.

This goes both ways. While I want to know what people are saying about other restaurants, we want to know what people are saying about the Uptown. Sure, we Google ourselves and we search other review sites to see what is out there. What we've realized, as a restaurant and as a consumer is that you need to be careful about what you read. We can't be sensitive like the Chef (in the attached article) at Marcus Wareing's Restaurant at the Berkeley. You just won't please everyone 100% of the time. You can't take one negative review on a place as the gospel, because the reviewer could have a personal agenda or maybe the place just had a bad day. But, what you can do is take the bad, fix the problem and move on.

In the article, it goes on to talk about how the chef attacked the negative bloggers in a verbal dispute and whether or not the bloggers crossed an invisible line in their critique of his restaurant. Customers are fully entitled to their opinion whether or not they went through culinary school or they eat out once a year. That's what you need to decipher as the consumer. How legitimate are the claims, good or bad? Does the reviewer bash everyone, are they just miserable people OR is this an honest and respectable review. Sometimes it's a tough call, whether you are the consumer or the business, but one thing is for sure, if you attack everyone who reviews you negatively, you might not have time for anything else and it just hurts your reputation even more. The article finishes, who is right and who is wrong? That's the question you need to decide for yourself.

How right is the customer who blogs?

We would like to introduce you to the "new" face behind our newsletter. Nikki Galetti,  from Spring Valley, has taken over the weekly responsibility of putting together this weekly newsletter. For those of you unaware, Kris Hall had left us back in September to open her own business and filling the newsletter shoes is not an easy project.  Nikki started here back in March of this year as a hostess and has caught on very quickly. You will see her big smile with a blustery laugh at the front desk most nights during the week. Nikki is in her second year at IVCC. She is studying her general education courses to receive her Associates in Science and intends to go into the x-ray technician and radiology program at a four year university. Each week she is faced with the task of collecting articles from the owner, staff, employees and even customers and putting them together into what you receive in your Inbox. Believe me when I say it is no easy task. Each week we spend approximately 8-10 hours in putting this newsletter together. We chose Nikki for this responsibility because of her outgoing personality, interest in learning, computer skills and her love of the Uptown that she brings. Good job so far Nikki!