Palate Polls

By John Elson

The idea was born -- and why not? -- at the regular monthly dinner of a batch of New York City foodies. Someone complained about how hard it was, despite all the magazine and newspaper reviews, to find a really good restaurant. Eugene ("Tim") Zagat, a lawyer for Gulf & Western, had a bright idea: Why not survey the group's eaterygoing friends and circulate a newsletter listing their favorites? In a moment of Bordeaux-induced bravado, Zagat volunteered to organize the project.

Talk about small acorns and mighty oaks. Requests for Zagat's photocopied survey soon grew to the point that his wife Nina, also an attorney, suggested that they start selling the guide to cover expenses. Now, a decade after that fateful dinner, Tim Zagat is no longer a practicing lawyer but the mogul of an ever growing mini-empire of restaurant and hotel reviews across the U.S. For New York City gourmets, the appearance of Zagat's annual survey of local restaurants has become an event anticipated much the way their Parisian peers await each new Guide Michelin. Zagat has extended his restaurant guides to ten other U.S. metropolitan areas (including Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans) and a two-volume hotel survey covering the Eastern and Western states. Atlanta, St. Louis, Kansas City and the Pacific Northwest will soon have their own Zagats, identical in format (4 in. by 8 1/2 in., with burgundy covers) and price ($9.95). So will London, as Zagat goes international starting next year.

What makes the guides unique is that they represent gastronomical democracy in action. The surveys are based on questionnaires filled in by frequent restaurantgoers, who include the likes of author-editor Michael Korda and TV chef Julia Child. They rate eateries on food quality, decor and service on a 0-to-30 scale, note the average price of a meal (including one drink and a tip) and offer a succinct judgment on the restaurant. The results, compiled by computer, are boiled down by Zagat and a team of editors into capsule ratings that can sting as well as sing. In the current New York guide, for example, Elaine's, a snobby literary and show-biz hangout, gets bottom-drawer ratings of 9 in all three categories and such scathing reviewer comments as "I'd rather starve" and "check your self-esteem at the door."

Professional critics have mixed feelings about the guides. "I use it constantly," says Gael Greene, New York magazine's food maven. "When friends ask me for a suggestion about where to go, I use it to remind me of what I love." But Greene, like critic Elaine Tait of the Philadelphia Inquirer, also cautions that the Zagat ratings represent a "popularity poll," not an expert's informed judgment. "It's easy to be brave when your name's not on an opinion," says Tait.

Zagat counters that several palates are better than one and that his reviewers hardly lack for experience, since they eat out on average 3.5 times a week. Burly and gregarious, Zagat does better than that: about five times weekly, plus table-hopping jags, in which he eyeballs 20 or so establishments just to check out odors, ambience and customer enthusiasm.

Close readers of the New York surveys observe that they invariably list Vinnie's Pizza, a nondescript takeout joint near the Zagats' Upper West Side apartment. But Zagat denies the guides reflect a personal taste, noting that his reviewers rate one posh Manhattan bistro higher than he does. "I've never liked La Cote Basque," Zagat says, "but there are 500 of them and only two of us."

A lot more than 500, as it happens. By contributing to the 1989 New York City survey, about 3,500 serious eaters got free copies of the guide, as well as anonymous ego trips. That guide sold in excess of 200,000 copies and was bought in bulk by some 300 corporations to hand out to favored customers. Over the years, the surveys have earned "several millions," admits Zagat, whose possible future projects include a theater survey, a restaurant guide for kids, a telephone-access national data bank of restaurant information. And what about, um, Paris? "We may do other places," he says, "but the no word is for France." Breathe easy, Michelin, at least your home turf is safe.

With reporting by Janice Simpson/New York