I'm going to have to step away from my huge backlog of unwritten reviews from the last few months and write about
Grimaldi's Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria. Well, that's not exactly true. I did actually visit Grimaldi's for a quick lunch several months back, but I wanted to go and explore a little more thoroughly before reviewing them. As so often happens, a hundred little things kept distracting me and I just hadn't made it back, but last week one of their PR people got in touch and offered to comp a meal if I'd be interested. Honestly, my initial response was to turn them down. I mean it's one thing to be invited to an event the kind of which I've been to at other eateries at
The Village at Meridian, or to be sent gift cards to try a place...situations where I would still be more or less just another anonymous diner. This kind of situation, where the staff would know who I was and would be expecting me, that's something I just don't do. I prize my anonymity. I want to have the same experience that anyone else walking in to a restaurant has, because otherwise it's not necessarily representative of a normal meal there. There are plenty of other bloggers who plaster pictures of themselves on their sites for all to see, make a production of going around and taking photographs at a restaurant, who take glossy printouts of their reviews (suitable for hanging) back to the eateries once they've been posted. That's just not my style, and I can't see how it wouldn't alter everything. There's enough of that around. I'm content to pay my money, take my crappy guerrilla-style pics, and be able to say I had more or less the same experience that you would have if you just happened to stop in for a bite to eat.
In the end, I decided to take them up on it for a few reasons. First of all, I already had a meal there to write about, so it would be easy to compare and contrast the experiences. Second, as a few of my previous write-ups demonstrate, free food does not guarantee a positive review from me. If you doubt my integrity, well, that's why I'm filling you in on all of this. Third, Grimaldi's isn't exactly cheap. I'm not saying that they should be, and many of the restaurants at the Village aren't. Look around when you're there, even the eateries that started out as food trucks have significantly marked up their menu prices. It's obvious that rent isn't cheap in such a location, and that's going to get passed along the consumer. That having been said, free or cheap eats are always a good motivator to get other people to tag along. Finally, I always end up ordering a bit outside of the "free zone" and tipping very well, so while I knew I'd be saving a healthy chunk of change, I also knew I wouldn't emerge with my bank account completely unscathed.
I think that's more than enough of a disclaimer. If you're still with me, let's move on to my first experience at Grimaldi's...
