In the early days of Stamford Talk, I wrote a review of Saltwater Grille down in Shippan. It was not a glowing review. I said that the service was spotty and that the setting sun made dining on the deck almost unbearable. A few weeks after I posted, I started to feel bad. I did not want a popular place to know I was trashing them. I also thought maybe they'd want to advertise with me in the future.
Recently, I read a discussion about whether it was ethical for a blogger to remove old posts that he/she no longer felt were high quality or reflected what they thought. I realized that I was firmly against removing posts. A blog is WEB LOG. It's a record of your thoughts on a certain day. It's not supposed to be a... book or something to be edited. Once it's up, it's up. I knew I needed to put the SWG post back up so I was not a hypocrite. Here it is, completely unedited. Summer's here, and it's time for expensive seafood. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you about SWG.
I now know:
a) it's OK to criticize things that are not great- that's a key function of a blog or any type of writing, and
b) advertising is so a non-issue for this blog. This blog is about opinions, not about pleasing people who want to use Stamford Talk's wild success for their own benefit.
I guess I have worked out my Stamford Talk ethic... Say what I think about Stamford. Try to make it relevant to readers. Keep including my personality even though that can be intimidating when it's not just friends and family reading. Don't trash people without giving balanced opinions. Find and rely on trusted readers and other bloggers. Don't see blogging as competing with other bloggers. It's about community.
Blogging about Stamford is awesome. Stamford Talk is approaching 9 months old this month. I'm gonna have a big bash at the end of August to celebrate the one year anniversary, and you all are invited.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Saltwater Grille: Confession (and, Countdown to Summer)
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7 comments:
Congrats on your 3/4 of a year anniversary.
I have learned tons of new things about Stamford - one of the reasons I love your blog - and I like your writing and funny bits of editorial as well.
The removing posts thing is an interesting thought. I think I come down on the other side...in that if it's my blog, I'll do whatever the heck I want to old posts - slightly edit, massively rewrite, delete, repost.
But your blog is actually useful, while mine is completely pointless, so I didn't have any editorial integrity to start with.
OK - so next time I see you, breakfast is on me. With schedules so nutty, it probably won't be til August anyway!
Oh wait! the meetup! I take that back, June 13 at wherever. And while I understand you don't take advertising, feel free to use some of your clout to arm twist a restaurant into giving us some cheap drink specials. They have all been soundly ignoring my emails.
My buddy owns this place and I like it, but the winter is hard to make it there, always was.
they don't have docks for boats anymore, so they can't get that,and it's in a tough spot. but They are doing good. Still open.
Although I was kind of bewildered when my GPS brought me down to its awkward location, I was intrigued when I saw the inside. Looked like a nice comfy place for some NE style seafood.
In fact, when we sat down, we were wondering why there weren't more people there.
After our meal and upon reviewing he check, the answer became clear.
This is one of the few restaurants which I will not return to simply based on price - its way out of line.
Take it for what it is...the *best* overall dining venue on the water in Stamford this season....
You can spend $$ at Market or at Napa or at Saltwater...all depends on your ambiance preferance this time of year!
About price- I found Napa's food worth the price- SWG, enh- very good but not blow me out of the water like Napa's $24 dollar burger! That burger that kicked the ass out of the pathetic "Kobe" burger I got a Burger Bar in Norwalk.
True though that SWG is the best "waterfront" dining in Stamford- no, actually, I give that honor to Paradise Grill, because at least there you are overlooking NICE boats and can see the Sound. At SWG you're looking at a... creek, basically. Paradise does not have fancy food like SWG but the food is passable. I like the salad pizza.
@ StamfordTalk: off topic for a sec, but have you dined at City Island, the Bronx in the summer? and if so, where?
it's a "must do" for me every summer; I don't even know the name of the place we go, but it's right at the beginning of the strip....so I thought I'd take this opportunity to spark a convo re: the best City Island venue on here.
Quite to the contrary, we have had some amazing meals at Saltwater Grille. Every restaurant in this town is "over priced". It's sort of nice to have a place that is worth it's fee.
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