Did you know that when Brian "The Video Vigilante" Bates is not exploiting the sad and pathetic lives of street prostitutes, pimps and Johns for his own personal and financial gain, that he's an avid Urban Spoon restaurant reviewer???
Well, neither did I until we received this email from the owner of a new downtown BBQ restaurant. Apparently Master Bates visited the new business right after it opened and left a scathing Urban Spoon review. Here's an email we received from Kathy who claims to be the owner of the restaurant. Everything is [sic]:
i opened Blu's BBQ and Burgers October 18,2012. Brian Bates came in on Oct. 23, with 6 men, 1 was Scott Adams. They were pretty rude and 1 of them ordered a 3 meat dinner with bolongna. We only sold 1 3 meat dinners with bolongna our first 2 weeks. We received an invitation to join Urban Spoon, excitedly we did. Then the only reviews we found was brains and Scott's. They were devistating! What was to follow has been so much worst. We did ask our customers who said they loved the food to like u's on Facebook or like us on urban spoon. As we followed our score on US we found nice reviews but they were removed. I'm guessing at least 12 positive posts were removed within an hour of being posted. We would see them, then the next time we checked they would be gone. This went on for a couple of days till we were blocked from the Urban Spoon site. The bigger problem is Brian Bate's blog that is linked from the urban Spoon's home page. My son talked with a man named Ken from Urban Spoon and after several exchanges he finally did change the caption lines on the front page but still have the link there. Then a week and a have ago I had 3 women come in, ate and said everything was good, ate everything, including free cookies and then went on Urban Spoon and trashed us about food they didn't even order. All of which are addressed on his blog. I'm working 12-18 hours a day to make a go of Blu's. Today I searched Blu's BBQ only to find multiple blogs all over the web. They're all coming from Brian and his (wife.?)Since your far more filmilar with this creep, can you help me try to combat him? This is totally out of my zone.
Let me translate that for you.
Some lady opened a new BBQ restaurant near the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. Brian "The Video Vigilante" Bates came in with a six friends (one of them was Scott Adams) and ordered a bunch of meat. Bates and his groupies (one of them was Scott Adams) didn't enjoy the dining experience and left a bad review on Urban Spoon. Then, on a totally unrelated note, three women (one of them was not Scott Adams) ate at the restaurant, were provided free cookies, and then trashed the place on Urban Spoon. The owner of the restaurant works 12-16 hours day.
So how bad was this Urban Spoon review??? Let's check:
Ate at this place yesterday with 6 other downtown professionals. As another reviewer pointed out, this is by far the worst BBQ in the city and its a shame it's right across from the Bombing Memorial and so many out of towners will think we don't have a clue what real BBQ is.
The restaurant itself if nice inside and clean and open. The menu is pretty large and lunch is $7-$9 on average. But, that's where the good news ends.
I didn't see a traditional or electric smoker in the kitchen and the meats tasted reheated, tough and bland.
Until now I didn't think it was possible to ruin smoked bologna, but they managed to do it. Room temperature at best with no flavor.
I order sliced brisket too and it was not even edible. Needed a knife to cut it and it chewed like jerky. You couldn't even make it edible with their cheap generic BBQ sauce.
Our orders came out 25 minutes a part, one guy left without his food and one order they completely forgot - they simply offered to make it to go.
There were indeed others complaining that they didn't get their order or that the food was bad.
This place is terrible.
*When reading the other over the top positive reviews (to this date), notice they ALL HAVE ONLY REVIEWED THIS ONE RESTAURANT - which is a good sign these are BS reviews from friends of the owners. I'm sure they will go review other restaurants now - but the date of those reviews will make it so you are not fooling anyone. Please, you've never reviewed any other restaurant on UrbanSpoon, yet you just happen to review this one the very day their UrbanSpoon account is created. RIGHTTTTTTT.
First of all, what a total dick move. I waited tables in the restaurant industry during the olden times, and there are always going be to some hiccups during the first month or so. That's why you should always give a restaurant — hell, any new business really — a couple of weeks to get things figured out before you go on Urban Spoon and totally trash them. That's about as douchey and pathetic as filming a methed-out hooker giving some truck driver a hummer on South Robinson and then selling the rights of that footage to Maury Povich.
This isn't the first time The Video Vigilante has reviewed a restaurant on Urban Spoon. In fact, he's reviewed 27 restaurants and has left "likes" or "dislikes" on 59 other places. I think this proves a theory I have that Master Bates wants to use his fame as a street hooker cinematographer to launch his own Food Network Show. I think the show will be called the Food Marshall. The premise is simple. The Video Vigilante will hide in the bushes and watch people order through a fast food drive thru. When someone pulls into a parking lot to eat the food, Master Bates will run after them with a camera and video tape the scene. He'll then ask to eat some of the food and give it an on the spot review. Would the show be a hit? No. Would I watch some of it? Sure.
Also, if the owner of Blu's really wants to get even with the Video Vigilante, I'd suggest a three things:
1. Make sure his review isn't accurate. What I mean by that is make sure the food is served fresh, the brisket doesn't taste like jerky, and the service is excellent. If you accomplish all that, things will take care of themselves.
2. Name some menu items after him! For example, every Tuesday serve the Brian Bates Bologna Special or the South Robinson Street Hot Dog. Maybe add a Scott Adams Brisket Platter to the menu or rename your special BBQ sauce The Video Vigilante Fire Sauce.
3. Whenever someone makes a mess in your dining room, secretly video tape them from the kitchen. Then sell the footage to Tru TV or some trash daytime talk show. That way, not only will you exploit and publicly humiliate the messy eater, but you'll profit from it, too.
