Doug Bebell dropped us a line the other day asking why we would post this, this and this when the state already posted this, temporarily closed his restaurant and fined it for health and safety violations.
“If you don’t think that was enough public embarrassment to get our attention, I don’t know what is,” he said.
Bebell is the chef and owner of Mystic Fish Seafood Bar & Grill in Palm Harbor. We called attention to state action against the place in a couple of recent posts and cracked on what inspectors found there.
So, let’s come back to the subject of Mystic Fish, Mr. Bebell’s invitation and what we hope to accomplish here.
First, we are impressed by and most appreciative of his communication. We think that says a whole hell of a lot of good about him in its own right.
We did say that we wouldn’t dine out at a restaurant that had been temporarily closed and fined, as his was, but he makes a fair point, which is that maybe we ought to eat there before popping off with that call.
Actually, he invited us to inspect Mystic Fish, then eat there.
We’ve met our share of don’t-give-a-damn business owners who only seem to care about getting paid. They tend to respond to this kind of adversity in one of three ways: they lie through their teeth, they bluster and bully, or they just blow it off as though it never happened.
Clearly, Bebell does not fit that mold. He has owned up to the problem and seems to want to prove that it was the exception, not the rule. Fair enough. We’re headed to Mystic Fish. We aren’t going to inspect it because we aren’t qualified. And we aren’t going to tell him, or you, when we’re going but we will go and we will blog about it after the fact.
Bebell also sent us a copy of a note to one of his customers with his side of what happened at that state inspection. We think it’s enlightening. You can read it here in the comments section below this post and judge for yourself, which brings us to his question of what we hope to accomplish here.
In a nutshell, this is how we answered Mr. Bebell. Our objective is to make public records easier to obtain and to provide a forum where they can be explored and discussed in greater, more enlightening detail. We believe this can help educate and inform the public and even mitigate potentially unwarranted perceptions by enabling free exchange between consumers, business owners and other concerned parties.
By the way, we also told him that we believe most people understand that even the best of businesses make mistakes and that it’s usually not the mistake that causes long-term damage but a poor response by management. People forgive errors. They don’t forgive arrogance, bluster or deceit.
We’ve got more to say about what we’re doing here relative to traditional media. We will be saying that it in the next few days. For now, though, we’re looking forward to what we hope will be an enjoyable meal.