REVIEW THE REVIEWER....

This is not meant in any way to slam Cody Kendall, nor is it meant to try to excuse any of the review she did on Salt this week....But, I have to share my thoughts about the review here. I know if I were a reader of this I would be sitting back saying "Yikes, I wish I were a fly on the wall in his house this morning".
First let me say that I didn't find the review that bad, 2 stars, not what I wanted or expected, but fair enough and we can fix what she thought might be broken. That being said...."WHAT THE FUCK CODY???" (and I mean no offense by that), but c'mon after 2 weeks of being open you do a review??? Any reviewer worth anything would give a place more time than that to get up and running, to find what is working and what isn't quite hitting the mark. That's my initial reply.....now for addressing the review itself.
I think in her first 2 or 3 paragraphs about English Pubs I saw where this was going. We are not an English Pub...nor English Gastropub for that matter. We are an American Gastropub. Claiming we are really a NJ Roadhouse Bar, she is kind of right...We are a NJ Gastropub, where we take food seriously a use ingredients that people are comfortable with and try to prepare them in an upscale way through technique, presentation, quality of ingredients and service. I think part of the problem was that we were not what she wanted us to be.
I am not going to knock at all the 2 stars nor her problems with the food,like I said, we can fix those things, and prior to this review even coming out most of the "problems" have been fixed. But to spend most of the review describing what we "are not" and not of what "we are" seems wrong. No "why is the bike outside?" "where did the name Salt come from?" "why the domestic wine list?" "why Byram?" "where did the 5ft painting of a salt shaker in the foyer come from?" "what's with the tutu on the wall?" "why classic movies on the two 42" tv's in the dining room?" "are the dessert's made in-house?" "are they hand-cut fries?" "are you supporting local farms and orchards?" (something gastropubs are known to do..keeping local) "what's with the staff uniforms?" Or how about more description of the foods? Did she only try 4 entrees? which would leave me to believe it was just one visit...And a review based on one visit? Is it not typical to come back at least twice if not numerous times to compare visits for consistency, good or bad...
As you can tell I feel we got a bad shake on this one,and it's not sour grapes, or even disappointment in her critique...It just seems we were a "phoned in" review which was a slap in the face to all of the staff who work hard and take alot of pride in their jobs, and that's disappointing. Just as she would expect good things from us because of our reputation at bula, I have come to expect good things from Cody Kendall, and the QUALITY of this review sucked. She should know better than to knock a place for not being what she wanted it to be, or what she thought it should be.....When you come to Salt we want people to enjoy what we ARE, not what we ARENT....And I think if people do, they will "get" us and love us, because speaking for myself, as well as all of our staff, we're proud of what we are doing here!
That's all. Anyone?
b.