Mike Sutter We Hardly Knew Ye

Jul 6

posted by RL Reeves Jr in Austin Food Scene

The Austin American Statesman's food critic, Mike Sutter, is calling it a day.

We've always had a hard time gleaning content off the Stateless' [ as it's known on the street ] website.

It looks like a Commodore 64 was instrumental in its design.

Mr. Sutter was a huge improvement on the former critic, Dale Rice, whose moving on to greener pastures was met with a giant yawn by Austin's food community.

Big question: Who will replace the departing Sutter?

The best writer the Statesman has had in recent years was one Moira Muldoon. Her body of work can be read here:

http://www.austin360.com/restaurants/content/restaurant

I have no idea what she's up to these days but that gal could really write.

Alternately, I'd like to see the paper turn to the blogging community.

Austin's Chowhound board has dramatically shrunk in the last few years.

To the point where I wrote a piece entitled "Will The Last Person On Austin's Chowhound Please Turn Out The Lights"

It was removed by the unpaid volunteer moderators who destroyed the board two years ago.

But, there are three writers on the board who're doing yeoman work to keep it alive:

1] LixLix, profile here: http://www.chow.com/profile/247954

2] Tom In Austin, profile here: http://www.chow.com/profile/47618

3] Carter B, profile here: http://www.chow.com/profile/19611/activity

There are a few other notables still posting but these are the three writers who keep me coming back for Austin restaurant ephemera.

The Statesman has a chance to make a bold choice here.

While I have no doubt that they will squander it and hire an in house worker, it would be gratifying to actually look forward to picking up the Wednesday Food section instead of the current feeling of unease mixed with dread that the section brings each week.

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This entry was posted on July 6, 2011 at 11:19 AM. There are currently 13 comments. Print this entry.

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• #1 by poryorick on 7/6/11 - 2:25 PM

  

  I wasn't around when MPH finally split (I'd given up on the moderators a year or so prior for the heavy handed approach); can you say what happened?

• #2 by rl reeves jr on 7/6/11 - 8:31 PM

  

  If you roll back through time on the Austin Chowhound board you'll notice a lot of heavy posting from MPH, Knoblauch, Twill and a handful of others.
  
  The "you get what you pay for" theory has to be figured in to what led so many of these members to flee.
  
  Unpaid volunteer moderators are just that. Unpaid. What level of work will you get in this situation?
  
  Bare minimum.
  
  Some folks protested the wholesale removal of 1000s of posts, some of which had clearly involved a lot of effort on the part of the poster.
  
  I just hunkered down, got my own thing going and started concentrating on www.scrumptiouschef.com
  
  What used to be a huge, free wheeling forum that was a blast to participate in turned into this square, highly regimented ghost town where the prim, maiden aunts [ the moderators ] are determined to squash any enthusiastic post or opinion.
  
  It's sad but that's the modern reality of the Austin Chowhound board.

• #3 by poryorick on 7/8/11 - 5:36 AM

  

  Twill here (for the record, I'd created the account for the sole purpose of commenting once, but wound up stuck with that ridiculous handle which kept people asking if I had some sort of textile fetish). I'd completely forgotten about Knoblauch, but I guess that means we all took off around the same time. If the overzealous moderation was MPH's reason for vacating, as well, then I completely understand his frustration.
  
  At any rate, glad you started up the blog for the completely selfish reason that it's given me the oppo to read you without additional clicks over at the boards.

• #4 by rl reeves jr on 7/8/11 - 10:27 AM

  

  Thanks for your response Twill, you were one of the good ones that the unpaid, volunteer moderators drove off.
  
  It's sad. When you look back at what the old chow board used to be with all the crazy animated dialogue going back and forth, everybody all opinionated as Hell vs the calm, benign state of things now.
  
  Glad to have you on the site at any rate.

• #5 by poryorick on 7/8/11 - 12:16 PM

  

  Thanks for the kind words. The guys that hung around like you and Carter and Tom just had more fortitude than me. It was (mostly) fun while it lasted. The positive to come out of walking away was that I had way more time to actually eat (and add a few pounds). I look back fondly, though, at all I discovered from a really stand-up group of folks, yourself included.

• #6 by rl reeves jr on 7/8/11 - 12:32 PM

  

  Where you been eating Twill? If it's not too much trouble, kindly comment here or over on the chowpapi site.
  
  I'm always looking for new spots

• #7 by rl reeves jr on 7/8/11 - 11:16 PM

  

  http://austin.eater.com/archives/2011/07/08/whos-g...

• #8 by poryorick on 7/9/11 - 10:44 AM

  

  Oh, hell, you would ask. Of course we've been over at Raymond's a bit, as well as regular treks over to the first two East Side Kings trailers; haven't made it to the new one at Shangri-La, yet, though. Love the sammies at Noble Pig. Just got back from stopping out at RO for CFS (still the best around IMO) on the way back from Krause Springs; Randy didn't seem too positive about prospects, and it would be a shame for that place to disappear.
  
  Do try Sonya Cote's fare when you get the chance; we've had some outstanding food from her kitchen, and she seems to always be exploring. I think Bryce is doing some good work, along with the folks at Foreign and Domestic and Haddington's (though the latter has some consistency issues).
  
  I gave up on Gringo Mex for the most part when we moved to the east side - MPH's series cured me of that, so we have regular spots over here: Bejucos, Los Comales, La Michoacana, Piedras Negras, Las Monitas (RIP).
  
  An extended vacation in Portland really opened my eyes to where Austin sits on the timeline. I had a chance to chat with Evan Zimmerman at Laurelhurst Market and when I suggested that Austin was 10 years behind Portland re: food scene, he replied that Portland was 10 years behind NYC, NYC was 10 years behind someplace else and so on.
  
  It's a pretty exciting time to be here watching the development from a regional, Cysco-based food economy to a more locally-conscious but broadly-influenced one. I think that while it's sometimes difficult to watch the growth swallow up some of our old favorites, the quality overall is on an upward trajectory, so we're pretty lucky.

• #9 by rl reeves jr on 7/9/11 - 2:27 PM

  

  Make your way down to Arancini at the corner of Live Oak and South First street.
  
  I haven't been this impressed by Austin Italian since I first found La Traviata.
  
  http://eatarancini.com/
  
  http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/2011...

• #10 by poryorick on 7/10/11 - 8:06 AM

  

  Will do. That menu looks intriguing.

• #11 by Nab on 8/7/11 - 10:54 AM

  

  hey Twill !

• #12 by poryorick on 8/8/11 - 3:34 PM

  

  NAB!

• #13 by Moira Muldoon on 8/25/11 - 10:07 PM

  

  Hey, RL,
  
  Thanks for the very, very kind words about my writing. I'm up in Dallas these days, writing the bar column for D Magazine. Here's the latest:
  
  http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2011/Sept...
  
  Thanks again for the mention and compliments. And yeah, I agree: Mike Sutter was great. He will be missed.