As we mentioned before, the 2009 Washington DC/Baltimore Zagat Guide was released yesterday. While there have been numerous questions about the methodology used for ratings, the Guides still deserve a lot of respect for compiling the opinions of so many diners and venturing where no Michelin Guide would go.
Zagat Guide founders Tim and Nina Zagat were in town publicizing the newest edition and hitting up some of the top local restaurants when they sat down to talk with DCist.
How do you think things have changed since you started the surveys?
TZ: When we started our surveys, we started in New York and now we’re in 88 cities around the world. We found 20 types of cuisines in New York, and now we have 94. The main reason for that was the 1965 Immigration Act. Suddenly people from all across the world were allowed to come to the United States. They brought their own cuisines and have had a transformational effect on food. Most of the Asian cuisines cook with vegetable oils, not animal fats, and now modern American cooking is done with vegetable oil. Secondly they cook with quick searing of food, particularly in woks. A lot of the techniques have modernized European cuisine. So it’s more than just introducing international cuisines; it’s also influencing Western cuisine.
The change is phenomenal. If someone told me as a kid that I was going to eat raw fish, I would have told them it was a fraternity prank. Now there’s a sushi bar in every mall in America.
NZ: Even five years ago, we wouldn’t have believed that in city after city in the country, Japanese restaurants would be #1, like here in D.C. [Makoto].
How do you think the recession has affected dining out?
TZ: We’ve been tracking this for a long time. There has never been a recession in any city where the number of restaurant openings was less than the number of closings. There were more openings every year. In the good years, it was sometimes two or three to one openings as opposed to closings. Even in a bad year it would be 1.25 openings to every closing. Most people find that kind of amazing, but it’s true.
