{"id":235927,"date":"2012-12-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/craft-commerce-gets-crafty-with-negative-reviews\/"},"modified":"2012-12-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T08:00:00","slug":"craft-commerce-gets-crafty-with-negative-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/craft-commerce-gets-crafty-with-negative-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Craft &#038; Commerce gets crafty with negative reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Disappointed Yelp customers get new life at the restaurant<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alex Owens | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Customer service used to be a lot simpler in the good old days before the advent of social media sites like Yelp.com.<\/p>\n<p>Even a decade ago, restaurants were usually able to deal with customer issues on a one-on-one basis, but now sites like Yelp.com give consumers a chance to rant or rave to an audience of a much larger group of people than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no secret that Yelp reviews impact a restaurant\u2019s success, but it\u2019s also common knowledge that there is no standard rating system, so customers can base their restaurant rating on legitimate things such as service or food, or to arbitrary problems such as running into an ex there.<\/p>\n<p>Some restaurants try and make nice with the website by paying for the right to put the best reviews up front, but Craft &amp; Commerce is trying a counter-intuitive approach by emphasizing the negative Yelp reviews in the actual restaurant.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1979\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1979\" style=\"width: 263px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/craft-commerce-gets-crafty-with-negative-reviews\/craftanimal4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1979\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1979 lazyload\" title=\"craftanimal4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/craftanimal4-263x300.jpg\" alt=\"Craft &amp;amp; Commerce gets crafty with negative reviews\" width=\"263\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 263px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 263\/300;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craft and Commerce logo (Courtesy craftandcommerce.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Customers who dine at the restaurant\u2019s Little Italy gastropub will hear recorded voices reading some of the more extreme comments made by Yelpers, such as these delectable tidbits.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThis place is the epicenter of those assholes with the mustaches \u2026\u00a0 Next, the place is jammed with hipsters eating corn dogs \u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe bacon ice cream sandwich? Re: bacon &#8212; just because it&#8217;s trendy, doesn&#8217;t mean you have to do it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThere really is no vodka here. But the bartender who helped us had big muscles and suspenders, so I guess that makes up for the lack of my alcohol of choice.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIf I came back, I&#8217;d substitute the fries for something else. You know, like replacing one American puppet dictator with another.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It might sound crazy to play up bad reviews in the actual restaurant, but there is a method to the madness, according to Craft &amp; Commerce co-owner Arsalun Tafazoli.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing about Yelp is, I\u2019ve seen great restaurants get only 3.5 stars,\u201d Tafazoli said. \u201cTake Momofuku in New York. It\u2019s rated as one of the 10 best restaurants in the world by experts, but it only has 3.5 stars on Yelp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, Craft &amp; Commerce is doing better. It\u2019s been reviewed by Yelpers 887 times and still has a four-star average. Still, Tafazoli takes bad reviews seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Well, sort of. \u201cWe read every review and there will be terms like \u2018shocked,\u2019 and \u2018appalled,\u2019 and people will say how we ruined their week,\u201d Tafazoli laughed. \u201cIt\u2019s almost Shakespearean, like we kidnapped their first child and held it for ransom. This is from a person who\u2019s paying 12 bucks for a burger.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1980\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1980\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/craft-commerce-gets-crafty-with-negative-reviews\/arsalun-web\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1980\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1980 lazyload\" title=\"Arsalun web\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Arsalun-web-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"Craft &amp;amp; Commerce gets crafty with negative reviews\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/240;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Co-owner Arsulan Tafazoli felt the negative Yelp reviews needed their voices heard. Literally. (Courtesy Craft and Commerce)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tafazoli and co-owner Nathan Stanton realize their restaurant aesthetic isn\u2019t exactly mainstream.<\/p>\n<p>Besides Craft &amp; Commerce, the two partners also own Neighborhood, Nobel Experiment and the Underbelly, and they have firm rules that set them apart from other restaurants: No ketchup, no vodka, no TVs and, as their Yelp project confirms, no blind faith that the customer is always right.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t care about service.\u00a0\u201cHonestly, we rarely go through a perfect night and we might screw something up, but we try to make it right,\u201d Tafazoli said.<\/p>\n<p>But rather than trying to go on Yelp and confront the haters, the two decided to have some fun at Yelp and, yes, Craft &amp; Commerce\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thought about using the bad reviews as wallpaper, but since we already were playing audiobooks in the bathroom, this seemed a natural,\u201d Tafazoli said.<\/p>\n<p>The duo had friends, regulars and staffers read the reviews.\u201cThere was even a photographer from the UT who had a good voice so we asked him to read,\u201d Tafazoli said.<\/p>\n<p>The negative Yelp reviews started playing in mid-November, and Tafazoli said the reaction from customers has been awesome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, no one has mentioned them on Yelp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Craft and Commerce is located at 675 W. Beech Street in Little Italy. For hours and menu options, visit their website at <a title=\"craft-commerce.com\" href=\"http:\/\/www.craft-commerce.com\">craft-commerce.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disappointed Yelp customers get new life at the restaurant Alex Owens | Downtown News Customer service used to be a lot simpler in the good old days before the advent of social media sites like Yelp.com. Even a decade ago, restaurants were usually able to deal with customer issues on a one-on-one basis, but now [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Craft & Commerce gets crafty with negative reviews","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}