In my column in Tuesday's the Business I said I'd mostly received positive comeback on last week's story about a lack of quality restaurants in the city. It seems I spoke too soon.That very day I received two phone calls from business leaders not very happy with the story and wanting me to do a follow-up praising the virtues of the city's leading eateries.
One restaurant boss has even called the article - in which Leicester Shire Promotions chief Martin Peters and Case restaurant owner David Hartshorn both said there were not enough top-notch restaurants - an "embarrassment to all the local business".
In a letter to another business person, which has been passed onto me, the restaurateur said:
"I would like to point to you the embarrassment to all the local business from the Leicester Mercury indicating the lack of a quality restaurant instead of encouraging people where to go and give them a guide or a list and support the local business.
There are a sufficient number of restaurants in the city with their own characteristics and with quality food and service. A short list for you is: the Case, San Carlo, Cherry's, the Boot room, 1573, Maiyango, Colourwork.
This is NOT the way for a local newspaper to support the city. As long as the Leicester Mercury are happy to be negative as always, that 30 per cent of a confidence booster that could be given to people will be lost and unused.
Local media need to be more positive and share their opinion very carefully. Leicester needs people and people need to know Leicester in its true colours.
I hope you can see the point and maybe address them to the right people."
Obviously, the restaurateur is annoyed with the tone of the article and I suppose I can understand his frustration, particularly when he feels his establishment offers top quality food and service.
But the point is the line we take is backed up by the boss of the body responsible for attracting visitors to the city, as well as a well-known restaurant owner. He also seems to think the article says the city lacks any quality restaurants. In fact it says there are some, but not enough.
Yes, one of the Leicester Mercury's roles is to support and assist businesses. But this does not mean we should ignore major issues which hold back the city from achieving its potential.
Myself and a number of leading business people in the city think the lack of quality restaurants is a big issue which needs to be addressed. And there are currently plans being cooked up behind the scenes to tackle the problem.
I am planning a follow-up story, but it probably won't be exactly to the recipe this particular restaurateur is demanding.
Surely there is an argument that a city gets the restaurants it deserves (or at least can afford). Commercially driven restaurants respond to demand and aren't going to open up something they don't think will succeed. Business leaders should put their money where their mouths are and support the existing higher quality establishments if they want to see more choice appear
ReplyDeleteBen, thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteObviously, it's always going to come down to commercial forces. But, as Martin Peters of Leicester Shire Promotions said last week (although it was cut out of the story), the city would have seen more high quality restaurants open if it hadn't been for the recession. And, of course, the downturn contributed to the closure of restaurants such as Watson's.
The point is the city has a shopping centre and theatre which rivals, if not exceeds, what Nottingham has got, so therefore why hasn't it got the same number of quality restaurants?
I think it's a matter of marketing what Leicester has to offer in a more imaginative way.
Hang on a second. In the original article this "John Harris of Rock Kitchen Harris" fellow(I always wonder where these stories come from?) compares Leicester unfavourably with Nottingham by saying that there are three or four good quality restaurants in the latter. Then someone contacts you and points out that there actually are that many good quality food restaurants in the city. So instead of trying to find the negative angle ("but so-and-so says that too!") why not point out that Mr Harris may just be wrong? The fact that no-one has mentioned that the city has three or four (or more depending on your taste) of the finest "Indian" restaurants in the midlands (and you don't need to go that far from the Mercury office to find one - Kayal) also makes me think that Mr Harris just wasn't trying very hard.
ReplyDeleteNed. Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI agree there are a number of great restaurants in the city, including several Indian ones.
But, as the story shows, not only does John Harris think there's not enough top-quality restaurants in the city, so does the man in charge of attracting visitors to the city and one of its leading restaurateurs.