The Cost of Fame

by Buzz Archer
on Friday, November 11, 2011 12:00 AM

Odds are rarely on my side when entering contests. Yet, this weekend, I lucked out and scored two seats at the private dining restaurant 12 Chairs, run by David Laris. The contest specifics involved online comments on actions you would take to "reimburse David Laris if you did not have any money".

Interestingly enough, the signal-to-noise ratio of the comments was quite low. This was probably due to the fact that, of the 15 or so comments taken into consideration, almost half of them came out as some insult or back-handed compliment against the restaurateur. Hence, my chance of winning doubled purely based on people willing to take an anonymous pot-shot at someone instead of adding two plus two together and realizing they had a legitimate chance to win a fairly posh dinner.

I am not going to delve into the 12 Chairs dining experience, although I will say this: Try it at least once during your time in Shanghai. Rather, I'd like to explore what it is about a chef/owner's persona that can be polarizing.

In the expat dining scene, there are chefs who are generally cherished and those that tend to attract controversy. Two top examples of the latter kind are David Laris and Eduardo Vargas. The best indicator of this is the number of comments, both positive and negative, that one finds right around grand opening time for a restaurant opened by either entrepreneur. The halo effect is such that ad hominem comments tend to prevail over substantive reviews of the restaurant in focus.

Why has this happened? It might be the perception that the restaurateurs seemed to be everywhere at once in late 2010 and early 2011. While both Laris and Vargas have decelerated their expansion process in 2011, the feelings still resonate, based on general rumblings in various online forums.

The character trait that resonates through every successful entrepreneur is the ability to learn from their mistakes. During the course of expansion, both Laris and Vargas made missteps. For Laris, it was investing in the Expo Village with Funky Chicken, Fat Olive, and Pie Hole; for Vargas, it was Balthazar in Tianzifang. Both men learned from their mistakes, and were able to refine and focus over 2011; their recent ventures in Sinan Mansions have so far been quite successful.

As the serial entrepreneur is wont to do, Vargas and Laris will continue to innovate and expand out their respective F&B enterprises. Love it or hate it, Shanghai's F&B scene is much better off with the inclusion of both individuals.