This week from June 21st – June 27th marks The Yelp Eats Event in St. Louis.  12 different restaurants are participating offering a special 3-Course Dinner menu for just $25 + tax and tip.  The menus look freaking tasty!  Please get out this week and support our local St. Louis restaurants.

Below are the different menus that are offered:

Kota Wood Fire Grill:

Appetizer: Garlic Barbeque Delta Shrimp OR Stuffed Mushrooms with goat cheese and herbs

Entree: Jerk Painted Salmon OR Hickory Fired Orzo OR Espresso Rubbed Beef Filet Medallions

Dessert: Devil’s Food Cupcake OR Apple Pie and praline sauce

Sanctuaria:

Appetizer: Choose any 1 tapas from the menu.

Entree: Choose any 1 tapas from the menu OR any 1 cocktail from the specialty cocktail menu

Dessert: Choose any dessert from the dessert menu

Frazer’s Restaurant & Lounge:

Appetizer: Chorizo Stuffed Dates OR Zucchini Rolls (vegetarian)

Entree: Moroccan Tilapia OR Daily Chicken Special OR Steak Frites OR Sweet Potato Spinach Enchiladas (vegetarian)

Dessert: Bread Pudding OR Key Lime Pie

Lola:

Appetizer: Goddess Salad OR House Salad OR Caesar Salad OR Soup du Jour

Entree: Lobster Corn Dog with Mac ‘n Cheese OR Coq Au Vin OR Carmen Crepe

Dessert: Dessert au Jour

Milagro Modern Mexican:

Appetizer: Queso Fundido OR Quesadilla Tradicionales

Entree: Carne Asada OR Salmon Yucateco OR Chiles Rellenos

Dessert: Tres Leches Cupcake OR Apple Cinnamon Empanadas

Jade Restaurant & Lounge:

Appetizer: Crab Rangoon OR Pork Pot Stickers

Entree: Mango Tofu OR Chicken Sauteed Mushrooms OR Hidden Dragon Roll

Dessert: Green Tea Cheesecake OR Fried Banana

Onesto Pizza & Trattoria:

Appetizer: House Salad OR Salami Roll

Entree: Pick any 14-inch Pizza (up to 3 toppings) OR Eggplant Parmigano Plate OR Spaghetti & Meatballs

Dessert: Tiramisu OR Cheesecake of the Day

Almond’s:

Appetizer: Asparagus Risotto OR Crab Cakes

Entree: Pan Fried Chicken OR Grilled Salmon OR Veggie Pasta

Dessert: Blueberry Bread Pudding OR Chocolate Souffles with berry sauce

***NOTE: Almond’s is closed Thursday evening for a private party***

Boogaloo:

Appetizer: New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp OR Vegetarian Flatbread OR
Plaintain Tostones

Entree: Ropa Viesja OR Half Jerk Chicken OR Jamaican Johnny Cakes

Dessert: Bread Pudding OR Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

Mosaic Modern Fusion:

Pre-appetizer/Chef’s Creation: Amuse Bouche

Appetizer: Fresh Mozzarella Caprese OR North African-style Hummus

Entree:  Petit Beef Tenderloin OR Cuban Artichoke Roast Chicken OR Chef’s Seafood Selection

Dessert: Chocolate Pot of Cream OR French Toast Bread Pudding

The Scottish Arms:

Appetizer: Scotch Eggs OR Haddcock Cakes OR Mixed Green Salad

Entree: Fish ‘n’ Chips OR Chicken Curry OR Pork Burger OR Terrene of veggies

Dessert: Bread Pudding of the day OR Fried Mars Bar

The Shaved Duck:

Appetizers: Crab cakes with jalapeno cream corn OR Smoked Wings with mango habenero bbq sauce

Entrees: Smoked Meatloaf with root beer glaze and choice of one side OR Duck Flatbread with smoked tomatoes spinach bleu cheese and bourbon drizzle

Desserts: Rhubarb Pie with a scoop of ice cream OR Hummingbird Cake
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Please note these restaurants will also be serving their regular menu during Yelp Eats. When you make your reservations at participating restaurants mention you would like to receive the Yelp Eats menu.
Email stlouis@yelp.com for any questions!

Disclaimer:  UrbanBacon has partnered with Yelp to help promote Yelp Eats this week.  In return, we will be sponsoring The Weekly Yelp the week of July 28th.  Just being transparent and honest with our readers:).

The majority of my life I grew up fishing private ponds, streams, and rivers in Missouri.  There is nothing like the serene stillness and peace of a bright summer day on the crystal water.  This is my element, at least as a kid it was.  I remember tying neon green and construction orange lures in hopes of landing that monster 8lb large mouth bass.  Constant casting and reeling while my lure danced across clear water taught me a great deal of patience.  In a way, fishing is like social media.  Are your customers biting your lures?

The Game is Patience

My father taught me the importance of patience.  He is honestly the most patient man I have ever met.  This transferred well into fishing for me.  When you’re bass fishing, you are constantly casting and retrieving different lures in efforts to attract fish.  Bass have instincts to strike what they haven’t seen before.  Therefore you should constantly change and adapt to water color, temperature, time of year, time of day, and what everyone else is fishing with.  This takes patience.  Learn that you won’t always land tons of fish until you find the right technique. Social media is the same way for your restaurant.  You have to offer different specials and react differently given the timing.  You are building an online customer base, and that takes time.  The most deadly mistake your restaurant can make is believing things happen over night.  You have to learn, try new things, and be patient with your customer base.

Push vs Pull Marketing

There are both push and pull strategies in fishing.  Buzz-baits make an awful buzzing sound that annoys fish to the point of striking out of frustration.  Are they effective?  You bet.  Spinner-baits use shiny metals to attract fish so they strike out of curiosity, also highly effective.  In essence: Buzz-baits = Push Marketing Spinner-baits = Pull Marketing Most social media platforms use a pull marketing technique.  Twitter is a perfect example of this.  90-95% of your tweets should be engaging (Pull Technique), and the rest to push your specials on followers.  Twitter followers consider specials as spam, so it’s best not to over tweet them.  Instead, you should focus on creating compelling content around your restaurant that pulls followers in.  Here are some tips on using Twitter like a double edged sword. UrbanBacon is more of a push marketing example.  Here you directly post your specials, and then work on pulling them in through comments/interaction.  UrbanBacon users are actively looking for specials, so you can get away with pushing specials upon them. Ideally you should use a combination of Push vs Pull according to Mike Atkinson from FOHBOH.  Play with your customer base and see which platform/strategy is more effective for your restaurant.

What Are You Fishing For?

In my eyes, there are 2 types of fishing:  Bass fishing and Cat fishing, and both use very different techniques.  For bass you typically use fake lures to constantly cast and retrieve.  Bass are aggressive and hunt their prey, so you must be aggressive.  Catfish are bottom dwellers meaning they sift through the pond floor for food. They rely on sense of smell, therefore stink bait smells like a steak dinner to them.  Let your bait hit the bottom, pull the line tight, and wait for a bite.  Are your customer’s bass or catfish? You should know what customers you’re fishing for.  Are you a trendy college bar?  Than why in the hell would you advertise in The Wall Street Journal?   Focus on producing content your customers will consume and revolve it around your restaurant.  For example, if you are a dive bar, than start a blog about dive bars across the country.  This will attract people who love dive bars.  Once they’re hooked, it’s up to you to land them into “the boat” a.k.a. your bar.  The foundation of content marketing is knowing what you’re fishing for.

Fish Different Spots, But Stick to Your Honey Hole

Anglers learn to try different spots.  There are plenty of fish, just some places are more abundant.  Through trial and error you can find these spots.  The main key is to get fishing, just remember your honey spot. There are tons of social media sites:  Facebook, Twitter, UrbanBacon, Yelp, etc where people are daily.  Which spot works best for you?  If your Facebook fans are extremely loyal, than this is your honey spot.  But don’t be scared to fish other social media sites.  They may just have the customers you’re looking for!

Fishing Takes Time

You want to start catching fish?  Start fishing!  Simple as that.  The more you fish, the more you catch.  You have to invest the time it takes to learn techniques, scout spots, tie lures, wait for bites, set hooks, and ultimately land fish.  If you want more fish it’s time to take action. Social media is exactly the same.  Want more followers?  Then you need to start connecting with people online.  There are multiple social media platforms already built, you have to invest the time.  It takes time to build a customer base online, and nothing happens overnight.  The customers are there, are you ready to invest the time? What do you guys think as restaurant owners?  As customers?  Is social media worth the time?  Leave your comments below!

We have been following the Yelp lawsuits closely at UrbanBacon.  As promised, we will occasionally  keep you up to date with recent happenings…Check out their blog here for the full story.

This week Yelp decided to change their advertising structure.    Businesses advertising with Yelp were previously allowed to highlight their favorite review at the top of their profile.  A monkey could figure out why a business would want their best review displayed at top of the page.  They are now removing this feature from their business model.  Is it too late?

Yelp also filters their reviews.  The filters sift reviews that are possibly posted by people affiliated with the business.  This is for obvious reasons.  Otherwise every business would have their entire family giving them 5 stars.  In an attempt to add transparency, Yelp has added a section so users can view what their filters are catching.  Now everyone can read reviews that were never posted.

When the lawsuits were brought about, we questioned the future of Yelp.  One thing we can say is they are making efforts.  Is it too little too late?  While they have reached a settlement with these changes, the lawyers are proceeding with the class action suit.  They are looking to collect damages which could come at a pretty penny.  A scheduled conference has been set for April 26, 2010.

What do you guys think?  Is Yelp doing enough to clear their name?  Have they lost credibility?  Please leave your comments below!

Disclosure:  I am a member of Yelp, but am skeptical with their current business practices.  As of now, my reviews will stay posted…as of now

Yesterday, the well-known start-up Yelp was slapped with a class action lawsuit.    You can read about the story here.  Yelp has been accused of “extortion” by a veterinarian hospital in California.  The hospital contacted Yelp asking them to remove negative reviews of the business.  Yelp refused to take down the reviews.  Then a funny thing happened, the veterinary hospital was promptly contacted by a Yelp “sales representative.”  The rep told the company they could delete or lower the negative reviews on their pages for the low cost of around $300/mo.

Much to my surprise, this isn’t new news.  I tweeted a few articles yesterday and the reactions were shocking.  Apparently, I live under a rock.  My tweeps informed me that Yelp has been extorting business for quite some time.

I had NO idea…honestly.

This almost triggered me to remove my 40 some Yelp reviews yesterday, but I decided against (for now).  Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and there are intriguing questions to be answered:

Are they really extorting small businesses?

Do Yelp reviews still hold water anyways?

How many businesses do you think will join the class action lawsuit countrywide?

One thing I do have to say about the situation:  It has destroyed Yelp’s credibility.  The site is built on reviews, whether negative or positive.  The fact they are collecting revenue to “hide” negative reviews destroys the entire mantra of the site.  Who can you trust?  In my eyes, the money blinded Yelp from what they originally set out to create.  I am anxious to see their response to the lawsuit.

What do you guys think?  Can a start-up like Yelp withstand a nationwide class-action lawsuit?  How do restaurant owners feel about it?  Is Yelp dead?