Fucking Q?! Unless Naruke-san has seriously re-thought and re-tooled his cold, hard shari, Q don’t even belong on the Top 100. And how on earth can it even be above n/naka?!
In all seriousness, the logic for these media rankings often goes something like this:
Editor: “We NEED to include a sushi place. Somewhere different. Somewhere new. Somewhere not so talked-about…DTLA is popping. Let’s do ‘Q,’ that sounds exotic enough.”
Intern: “They do have Edison bulbs.”
Editor: “Number…hmm, people like sushi…number 18. Scratch that; 7.”
“Bacco Group” = top 22. I’m surprised I’ve been to nine of them.
Reads like the authors’ honest opinion to me. I can’t see how anyone could look at themselves in the mirror after putting Pizzeria Mozza on such a list but that doesn’t mean they took a bribe. They’ve been consistent fans of Q.
But being friends, being invited to special events, being comped every time they go to an establishment, getting VIP treatment or always being able to get a reservation, invites to the next restaurant opening, etc.
I know a group that has opened a few new bars in LA in the past 2 years and each new bar they open is written up as “LA’s hottest new bar” within a week. The writer is a friend of the wife.
Do they note in a disclosure that the author is a friend of the wife ?
At least, J Gold does make the disclosure that Nancy Silverton is a close friend of the family. His wife, Laurie Ochoa, has authored myriad of cookbooks with Silverton over the years.
But J Gold still praises the “Mozza Group” to the fucking high heavens, beyond the celestial firmament.
Were there other bars you thought were hotter those weeks?
That kind of gossipy news item isn’t really comparable to a review. It’s not an informed value judgment, it’s just hype. Typically reviewers don’t write that stuff. When they do, the publication’s probably not serious.