THROW BACK TULSA
Once again, we highlight a throwback article about the restaurant by a famous professional critic: Elmer Dills! There are fun to see how the world of restaurant reviews have changed…
Restaurant critic Elmer Dills was “king” of Southern California in the 1990’s. During that era, he not only wrote a popular LA TIMES column on his food loves and hates, he created a television show about restaurants. He turned this genre of previous anonymous writers into courted celebrities. Where other critics went to great lengths to hide their identity in order to get a ‘real’ experience at restaurants, Elmer Dills came out from his cloak.
He had a stable of writers that helped him with his research so he could continue to have a large list of reviewed restaurants to fill both his LA TIMES column and the weekly TV show. The article highlighted here was written by one of his staff writers. After reading this review, he ended up coming into the restaurant after she ‘found’ us and wrote other articles for all of the Southland.
Like many of the restaurant critics that found us, he became a dedicated regular. He loved the fact that we were a small group of young restaurant owners that wanted to simply serve great BBQ in a family atmosphere. He understood the power of his celebrity and we benefited from that knowledge and dedication to ensure lots of folks became our regulars as well.
Elmer certainly was an innovative professional who saw the future before it arrived. He increased the ability of the masses to take a sneak ‘eat’ at restaurants. We now have millions of critics through social media and ‘guest column’s to help us select great restaurants that meet every taste of food and atmosphere. We continue to be most grateful for Elmer and his pioneering peers who allowed so many to find our ‘little, unassuming’ restaurant and become one of our many precious customers we so richly appreciate.