A Chef's Perspective

Hi everyone.
A few things first;
I am the chef/co-owner of La Boca & soon to open Primitivo.
I have held every position in this business from dishwasher to host. I love doing what I do & wouldn't trade it for the world.
This opening post will be a sort of manifesto & I hope it won't ramble on too long.

I've never been to this site since recently & am pretty ennamored with the love that is given to Boca.
Thank you.

This is not a rant but a justification; the restaurant business is tough, tougher than a lot of other things one could choose to do. I like to think the restaurant biz chooses you and then you in turn accept and choose it. Only once you've accepted this does your journey begin.
At the top of the food chain is praise, press & perhaps fortune, but on every rung of the ladder, even at the top, is criticism, doubt & threat of failure.
Yeah, I comma splice, who cares.
The restaurant biz is criticized & praised like no other; forget to fill the toilet paper roll, "your place sucks", make a good soup, get on TV.
I don't read reviews of my place, never will.
15 years ago you'd get a letter in the mail once every few months.
10 years ago you'd get an email every other week.
For years(when I was a GM of a restaurant) the negatives were brought to me.
Only the negatives.
Today - every couple of hours you could be hit with complaints about what you did or didn't do. Could you imagine being the mgr. of any biz dealing with this?

Today's impulse based system of criticism is flawed. Used to be you had to invest some time & effort into waging your opinion, and then it was a private conversation between you and the proprietor. Now it's as if people tend to think their opinion has some sort of value because it can be published. Your opinion should matter; to your circle of friends & acquaintances & to whom it's directed at, not the world.

I want to flip the script a bit.
Let's field questions about the restaurant biz in general. Let's understand why something is or isn't done the way we like before we publish a reasoning for dislike.
I'd love to see discussion of strategy of the inner workings of a restaurant, it's a helluva lot more exciting than whatever goes on at Old Navy.

I emplore you, ask and I'll answer.
I have never nor will ever respond to criticism of my own place. We do our best and I'll stand by that.
If you want to troll this thread or any other that I'm involved in, that's your choice.
Don't expect me to answer between the hours of 5-10, as I'm busy for dinner service.
Thank you
Jared Ralls