GENTLE READERS,Miss Dish imagines it like this:
It's Wednesday. You go to your favorite coffee shop for
a double mocha with double whipped cream. On the way you
pick up the latest issue of Willamette Week. You
notice it's a bit heavier than usual. Perhaps there's an
insert for OK Cola weighing the thing down. Or maybe it's
just another excellent exposé on cops. You sit down,
open up and see that there's a restaurant guide inside.
How do they do it? In the spirit of disclosure, Miss Dish
presents a FAQ:
1) Why the best 100 restaurants?
Answer: It's good to have a goal. And 100 is a nice clean
number. And for Miss Dish's mother, Mrs. Dish, it's her
most favorite number in the whole wide world.
2) Do you really go to all these restaurants and actually
eat?
Answer: Yes, indeed. The reviewing team is outfitted in
special elastic-waisted pants and asked to eat their hearts
and arteries out. Every single one of these spots has been
inspected by one of WW's fine roving reviewers.
3) Who pays?
Answer: The kind and generous owners of this newspaper
put forth the resources so we may actually eat at these
restaurants anonymously and give honest reviews. But, really,
the above-cited waistlines, hearts and arteries of our roving
band of reviewers pay the price.
4) Why isn't my favorite restaurant, X, listed?
Answer: Because you have bad taste and your palate is that
of a peanut-butter-loving preschooler. Or:
a) Maybe we didn't know about it. Why didn't you tell us?
b) We went there and hated it (there were more than a few
places we visited and knocked off our list).
c) We went there and felt ambivalent; the place was good,
but not good enough to break the top 100.
5) So how do you create this list, anyway?
Answer:
a) You know that game, darts?
b) A group of colleagues, diners of great stature all,
gathers for a not-so-gentle debate of the merits of each
restaurant.
c) And then there's the arm-wrestling.
6) How do I sign up to be a roving reviewer?
Answer: Alas, it is a designation given at birth. Those
with the mark of the ancient order of Epicurius on their
right buttock are given instructions at the tender age of
13. For most, this is deemed a less choice assignment than
vampire slayer.
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