Zagat: By the Numbers

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

The first family of hospitality crowd-sourcing, Nina and Tim Zagat, have released the results of their 2011 Washington D.C./Baltimore survey, an all-too-familiar litany–the Inn at Little Washington continues its decade-long streak of ping-ponging back and forth between the #1 and #2 spots for food; Restaurant Eve remains firmly entrenched in the food top 10–which I highly doubt will surprise any fine dining aficionados or even casual gourmands.

I was, however, interested to see how the D.C./Charm City surveyors stack up against other markets and how often they hit the streets in search of a good meal.

According to Zagat’s, there are roughly 6,500 surveyors actively evaluating 2,400 meals per day across the D.C./Baltimore corridor. While that sounds like a whole lot of eating, our area ranks second-to-last in surveyor meals per week (2.6).

Texans, on the other hand, have gorged themselves into four of the top five spots (Houston – 4 meals per week, Austin/Hill Country – 3.8, Dallas/Forth Worth – 3.6, San Antonio – 3.5).

The economy, of course, is partly to blame.

Approximately 40 percent of local surveyors admitted to eating out less because of forced belt-tightening, while another third of those surveyed copped to more carefully eyeing menu prices when they do step out.

On the upside, over half of the surveyors said lean times have prompted restaurants to beef up their dining deals while approaching 45 percent said the downturn has rekindled a passion for home cooking.

Amateur food sleuths might also be interested to know that Zagat’s stable of local food spies skews female (51 percent) and relies heavily on retirees (60+ year olds comprise 25 percent of their core constituency)–though Gen Xers (30-year olds) and late Boomers (50s and up) account for 23 and 22 percent (respectively) of the roving reporting crew.

Rankings-wise, NoVA restaurants seemed to do pretty well.

We claimed six of the top 20 food slots:

* Inn at Little Washington (2)

* Restaurant Eve (7)

* L’Auberge Provencale (10)

* L’Auberge Chez Francois (15)

* 2941 (16)

* GoolDaeGee (19)

Seven of the top 24 cuisine categories:

* New American: Inn at Little Washington

* Chinese: Peking Gourmet

* Classic French: L’Auberge Provencale

* South American: El Pollo Rico

* Southwest/Tex-Mex: Sweetwater Tavern

* Thai: Thai Square

* Vietnamese: Four Sisters

And scored a handful of entries in the 20 “Key Newcomers” list:

* Maple Ave

* Pizzeria Orso

* Trummer’s on Main

Would love to hear what you all think of the current crop of popularly appointed dining champs AND/OR the Zagat’s scouts among us.

–Warren

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