Far be it from the Prick to play morality police or tell other people how to act in public much give advice on how to run blog. But surely even in this permissive age it is still considered outré to lick, or pretend to lick, a gentleman’s nipple in a restaurant, even a pub-restaurant – and then go on to publish said nipple-lingus on the internet.
Yet here we are.
Additionally the ostentatious holding up of rating cards at the end of a meal at the table, as if one were a reality TV host (now there’s something to aspire to!) ought to be the sort of thing to merit exclusion from polite society. It certainly got one Adelaide restaurant off-side, and rightly so:
To the 20 food bloggers who held up laminated score cards during our busy service, we appreciate your custom but, leave the cards at home.
— press* food & wine (@pressfoodwine) August 25, 2013
Twitter more or less exploded after the above tweet, and it has been suggested that the offending bloggers were part of a collective called “SupperClub”, a site that seems to be less about the food than the outrageousness of its members who hold major tickets on themselves while coming across as sort of a wannabe Bullingdon Club for cashed-up bogans.
Boorishness is never pleasant, but its consequences are generally confined to those within earshot. (This site famously ruined Terry Durack’s dinner because we got too boisterous at Mrs Prick’s birthday dinner last year. Again, sorry, Terry.)
But the sort of thing described by Press* Food and Wine, and pushed on sites like SupperClub, is far worse, because it tars every amateur scribe and snapper who likes to write about food online with the same obnoxious brush. If there is any good thing to come of the above tweet and the reaction, it is that there appears to be a broad sentiment that this sort of thing needs to be ring-fenced lest it spread and cause good bloggers to throw up their hands and give up the game or cause restaurateurs to feel even more ambivalent about the activity.
There aren’t many rules to stick by when food-blogging, and what guidelines there are should not be hard to stick to. Write honestly (and well).
Photograph discreetly.
And don’t be a jerk.
Even if one is a bit of a Prick.
Prick With A Fork 
Nice post & excellent rules.
I’m surprised the management at Press Food & Wine saw the rating cards it’s so badly it upstairs. I had to use the torch on my iPhone to read the wine list.
Couldn’t agree more. Thanks.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mmNMrbt2uV8/UgA4JhnWRjI/AAAAAAAABuI/_ZSXCSk5cDM/s1600/russ.jane.knaps.JPG (this sums them up) nuff said.
Gee they really like themselves don’t they!
It’s antics like theirs that makes me really hate saying to people that I am a food blogger. I really loath to be lumped into the same category as this type of crap. No wonder there are many in the industry that regard bloggers as low life scum that shouldn’t be given the time of day.
They’ll never be the Bullingdon Club!
there are rules… social etiquette and accepted cultural mores around respect and consideration. remember always that the people who own those restaurants, prepare and serve that food are USUALLY doing the best job that they can. in fact, many of them are putting themselves out there on that plate and hoping that it will please said critics.
I thought Bullingdon events usually involved fighting and vomiting and large damages bills. These pussies are nowhere near the mark.
Totally agree! social media and bloggers should have rules for guidance. Although the site is their own property, the activities are very irresponsible!
@Jess Whalley
“…putting themselves out there on the plate”.
There’s a law against that, isn’t there?
Can’t un-see that one…
That picture hurts my eyeballs