Frank Bruni: Blogs Have Made Dining Out "More Faddish"

In this Q&A with the Key West Literary Seminar journal Littoral, ex-New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni admits that Eater NY's BruniBetting feature "ratcheted everything up a bit" and shared his thoughts on the effect of the "rapid-response media environment" (aka the blogs) on restaurants:

Restaurants with a ready-made curiosity factor– because they're participating in a growing trend, because they have a chef who just got TV time on a reality show, or because they have a flashy gimmick– sometimes get more attention than they deserve, because they're able to hog the blogosphere, which needs quick and easy and instant items. Blogs aren't different from traditional media that way, but they're like traditional media on steroids, traditional media on a sugar high. The buzz is louder and more pervasive than in the past, and I think it leads people in the buzziest directions. Dining out has become more faddish as a result.

He also shared his cure for the common hangover, talked about why food has such a grip on today's popular culture, and explained how food-related literature "gets at subtler, bigger things."

· Frank Bruni Interview [Littoral via @FrankBruni]
· All Frank Bruni Coverage on Eater [-E-]