Rating Places - How do you do it?

After sporadically reviewing a measly 5 places within the first couple years I was on this site, I simply gave up because of a lot of the reasons you mention

I do check reviews of places on BA whenever I'm making a trip out of town, but not really at any other time

I think this is another reason why I find it difficult to write place reviews. In order to properly write up an establishment, you have to be as detailed as possible with this area as well as with the other 4. I've gotten to where I can write a beer review in as little as 5 minutes and have done it justice. Sitting down to write a place review would take me at least 15 minutes before I felt like I had covered all the key points.

And another reason I felt like the writing of place reviews was a futile effort (for me). In a year or two, there's a good chance that the douchey bartender who made my experience unpleasant would not be working there any more. On the other hand, if the beer was great and I gave a good review, what if the brewmaster quit and the beer started sucking? My review would pretty much become useless. I know you can argue that when you review a beer, it might change later on for a number of factors (brewery scaled up or also got a new brewmaster who couldn't duplicate the recipe) but with that, it's just a beer, not an entire company.

The final and most important reason I quit place reviews is the same reason I quit Yelp! I found myself only being inspired to write reviews for extremely positive or extremely negative experiences, and of course mostly the latter. That's why I dislike all those kinds of sites: People are more likely to remember and be vocal about their bad experiences, not their good ones. And I'm guilty of it too.

Also, plain and simple, I already make it a point to give a full review of every new beer I try. If I gave a full review for every new place I visited, I'd never be off my phone and computer. That being said, I really should at least give a rating to every new place I visit now that the simple 1-5 rating system has been implemented for it (has been for a while now, I know).

 

I like the places section. If I'm traveling to another part of the Country I appreciate the opinions of BA members on places or stores I might want to visit.

All I ask is a fair description, which is what I try to do. No demerits if a place isn't quite my style, rather I should rank it according to how well they carry off their own theme.

I don't think one has to be a restaurant critic to make a quality assessment. I believe most of us can recognize whether the food is tasty and well prepared, and whether the beer is average, good or exceptional.

 

@THSdrummer

What Squire said.

I also try to avoid rating without reviewing since I think those looking for something need a context for what the numbers might mean.

 

I think rating places might be more difficult than rating beers. It believe it to be even more subjective because it is so dependent on other factors. I don't do the bar scene, but we do eat out a lot and Lord knows I go to plenty of package stores.

One difficulty is variability - chefs, bartenders, wait staff, bottle shop staff, hell even owners - they all come and go and can have a significant impact on the overall experience. And I think you have to differentiate the two. One of my favorite bottle shops you never know what you are gonna get from the owner - can be a real Jekyll and Hyde thing, but the cleanliness and beer selection means I will put up with a little Hyde. I wouldn't in a restaurant.

I would add a question too - what defines "beer-centric". I added a little vegetarian joint a couple years ago. Is it a place to go to sit and drink? No - of course not. That said, they have a small but always outstanding tap list, the food is great (even for a dyed-in-the-wool carnivore like me), and the "vibe" is, well, interesting with all sorts of people. Is it for every BA? Of course not. But for somebody looking for a change of pace it would fit the bill and while it is not the typical thing, my thought was it is owed to the community to include different choices.

I do use the place reviews when I travel, especially if it is a work trip. While I can ask the local people, it is nice to visit the hive mind here where we already share a common interest. And, very frankly and not intended to sound snotty, in some of the places I go when you ask about beer it's "yeah...we got both kinds...Bud and Bud Lite". I find place reviews especially useful for work trips where I may be going somewhere remote and have limited time. I can try to find a retail outlet to stock up some hotel beers. Just did that on my recent trip to WI, and the Madison HyVee worked out great - all I found in the local shop where I was working was old inventory for singles/mix six. Yet that shop was rated highly...hmmm...

For me, quality is a combination of all those things you mentioned, and I think "vibe" plays a part when it comes to "quality" of experience. A small (but well-selected) beer list doesn't bother me - if I am going to eat, I'm not gonna sit there for hours drinking beers. One good choice is all I really need. But is the place clean - if they can't bother to keep the place clean, how do I know the tap lines are clean or that bottles/cans have been cared for, or my food is made in a sanitary kitchen? Cleanliness is a huge factor with me in terms of overall quality (stores and elsewhere).

If everything else is right and the service is unsatisfactory, then that is a turn off, but it depends. Service - unless it's bad right from the get-go, you are pretty much already committed. A store you can walk out, of course, but if you are seated graciously by the host/ess in a restaurant and then find out your waiter/waitress is an asshat? My bipolar store owner I mentioned - I will let that ride because I don't really need to interact with him and I've learned not to on the down cycles. In a restaurant, you can get stuck with it at least for one time.

Agree that vibe can be highly variable. I try to make myself neutral. For instance, I might go to Jack's Abby just because I want to go there, have some wings, pizza, and fresh beer. It's a place that always has a kind of a high energy feel to it although it usually isn't overly raucous - sometimes I dig that and sometimes I don't. But I feel that I can "participate" as much or as little as I want. As long as I don't feel like I don't belong - "you ain't from around here" - I'm pretty much OK with trying to understand the vibe for what it is or could be. When I went to Oxbow in Portland, I really liked the semi-industrial "vibe" of the place even though there was almost nobody there. I can see how the joint could be really jumpin' when filled. When I went to a particular local brewery, the neighborhood bar flies and the servers made it uncomfortable, like we were upsetting the natural flow of the universe. For me, vibe is about how do I "feel" when I go there regardless. If I were to go to a sports bar expecting to sit and have a quiet conversation, bad on me. The "personal" vibe was wrong for my expectation, but it's great for a sports bar, so I would still rate the vibe accordingly. It's not the place's fault that expectation and reality were misaligned.

How do you rate vibe at a place like Proclamation here in RI - until they move they have a tiny tasting room, it's been pretty well jammed, it's loud, it's inefficient so service suffers a little, yet you feel comfortable there and the staff treats you well. So it's crowded, but it certainly doesn't have the negative flow going on. You go to Trillium and just feel like you are standing in line - or at least it did on my last visit - and it sorta just feels like a store. It's neither bad nor good on it's own merit. Refer to: "things change" because they are making efforts to create a more enjoyable customer experience.

Like I do with beers, I do the best I can, but I might be a bit more harsh. With a beer review, it is just the beer. I picked it, took it home (usually) and drank it and it's all on me. With a place, there is an experience involved and the expectation is different whether that is a store, tasting room, restaurant, etc. The expectation is higher because interaction, to whatever extent, is implied and has a significant bearing on the experience.

 

I think you might be thinking too hard about it. Just rate things as accurate as you possibly can. All ratings and sometimes reviews are subjective, and not everybody rates things the same way. When I think of quality in a place I think of things like how clean or dirty it is, how nice it is overall, if things are neat or messy, the quality of the products, etc. If I go into a beer shop that looks like a sloppy convenient store that has products all over the place, hard to get, no prices, dusty bottles, I will rate the quality lower than a shop that is all neat and tidy with easy to find high quality products that have prices, etc.

 

I really enjoy written reviews by BA members in the directory/places. I try to add/review as many as i can. When i go to a new city i like to read what places to go to for stores,brewpubs,restaurants in this city and i find it very valuable. Vibe & quality are subjective to the reviewer, we all look for different markers ie(kid friendly,#of taps,outside seating,food trucks,mix sixer selection,growler fills,... on &on) when reviews are written we as members can make a decision based on other BA reviews what's best for us and family when visiting other parts of the country. Written reviews of all venue's help to make a decision on this IMO.

 

Criteria for reading, interpreting, and yes.... writing place reviews (for me):
1. The beer, their own, or taplist, has to be great-very good.
2. The service has to be friendly.
3. The space, as a third factor, is kind of a big deal - that includes design, light, where they put customers vs the beer itself, etc.
4. Ambiance - if it's filled with drunks, or too loud, or overrun with dogs. It's out. Only exceptional beer, across the board, might trump #4 for me.
5. Paying attention to what people are drinking here on BA, what their tastes are like, is key to interpreting what places are great (or might be, to my taste) so that a frequent WBAYDN poster who prefers maltier stouts, or saisons will give better pointers on places that produce those styles. Or (for my taste) I pay attention to the people I know are hop-heads and they highly recommend a place....then they have my attention. To each their own...
Cheers all.

 

I try to review every place I visit because to me, that is one of the most valuable resources. When I am out of town looking for a good bottle shop, or trying to decide between breweries I lean heavy on other people's opinions.

I do think that the "quality" section is a little vague, but I approach it the same way I do the "overall" score for beer. I try to take the whole picture into consideration. So yes, woodworking, and glassware come into play for me. Along with parking, restrooms, decor, use/layout of space... You can usually tell the ones that have really made a commitment to investing in the big picture.

Personally, I am not a fan of the "vibe" score. While it is important, it can mean so many different things to people. Just look at the thread about Tap Room Turn-offs. A lot of people don't care much for live music. I love it (not at a front row Ted Nugent concert decible level of course, so I get the not being able to talk yo each other thing). Some people think TVs kill the vibe of a place. Also, more often than not, it doesn't really apply to a carry out location. I would just as soon address these type of things in the comment section.

 

I'm retired and travel a lot since I now have the time. Even before I retired, travel was a part of my job, and I used the Places feature to scout out breweries to visit for dinner when I stayed overnight somewhere. I've visited over 400 breweries, and have reviewed 294 of them, except 6-8 that were rating-only because they are highly popular places with many reviews already. (The other 100 or so that aren't reviewed were brewery visits prior to my joining BA.)

The Quality factor in a rating or review has been mentioned a number of time above as having uncertainity about what it means. To me, because the Vibe, Service and Food have their own rating categories (which are subjective opinions), that leaves beer quality to insert under this Quality category. I try to be objective in my rating of this category by assigning a number from 1-5 just like a beer rating here on BA (although I don't use the same 5 BA criteria). I then average my individual ratings for an overall score of the 4-8 sampler glasses that I drank, and that score ends up being my Quality score. (If you read any of my reviews, that score pertains only to my rating of the brewery's beers.) So my subjective tasting skills become as objective as I can make them.

I also am objective in the Selection category by again using a scale of 1-5 and assigning in quarter-point increments in a chart that I created yhat gives a 1.0 score for 1-2 beers on tap, then 3-4 beers geting a 2.0 score, etc. on up to 20+ beers getting a 5.0 score. I'll adjust a quarter point or so downward if the tap list is unbalanced and has too many IPAs, for example, but this is rare.

A mention should also be made for the Karma value involved here for the Reviews (whatever that secret scoring mechanism might be), and that value requires a certain number of characters in your review text to earn a Review classification instead of being considered only as a Rating. (Assuming there is a Karma point difference between a Rating and a Review.) I think the threshold is 150 characters to be a Review, and I think that includes the spaces, so only like 3-4 sentences can get you credit for a full Review.

I use your reviews a lot, and I hope you rely upon mine.

 

I try to review most places I go to. I just got back from India and added some very obscure things, 1) a market/grocery store that sold beer 2) a brewpub that just started out. I tried to review every beer I had when I was over there, mainly because that place is a pain in the ass to get around, and if you have something close by, then that makes it nice. I don't really get caught up in how to review something. I think you need to look at the review from the prospect of notes for you if you go back. As I get older, I tend to forget experiences I have had at certain places, so these review help me remember the time that I had when I was there. I hope that it also helps others decide if something is worth their time.

 

Well, I take into consideration what the place seems to be trying for. Are they trying to be a quiet little spot, but one table is being loud and raucous? Then I won't hold that against the place. But, if they're trying to be a quiet place, and they have concrete floors, hard square walls with nothing to absorb sound, and high energy staff, then yeah, that would affect how I rated it. Instead of "Vibe" (a term I personally despise), consider using the word "comfort" in your mind. Do you feel comfortable there, for what they're trying to do? By all accounts I've heard and read, I would likely hate Three Floyds tap room under any conditions: loud music in a genre I hate, brusque, even rude, staff, crowded. If I were ever to go there, I doubt a good review would come from it, because they're trying for a comfort that's not mine. It's clearly something they, and a lot of people, do like, so it works for them.