A Tale of Two Reviews

P. Lundquist

Archive Magazine

First, let’s just say that the Anoka County Shopper is not the New York Times and their “Mystery Diner” is no mystery at all. His name is Peter Lundquist and he’s the editor of said paper and writes all the content of that paper, such that it is. He is Lindsay Cheltenham-Pierce, the social editor. He is “The Movie Hound” (FYI, Pete, it’s “Sundance” not “Sun Dance”). For a fat person, Peter is spread pretty thin.

Which still doesn’t completely excuse said editor re-publishing a years-old review of our restaurant days before Valentine’s Day.

Pete loved our justifiably famous clam chowder, but thought our blackened redfish a bit “over-blackened”. He found our wine list “small, but with all the must-haves” meaning we had Blue Nun, his personal go-with-everything favorite. This review matched almost word-for-word one that appeared in the Shopper in 1999. The main difference was that, in review, we were given three water towers, but this time around Mr. Lundquist—sorry,“The Mystery Diner”--thought we merited only two water towers.

We’re not bitter. We would, however, like to point out a few things to our distinguished reviewer. First, Blue Nun barely qualifies as wine. The only reason it was ever carried was because our supplier used to throw in a free case with our liquor order. That, and people from Blaine order it.

Secondly, we haven’t had blackened redfish on our menu since 1999. It’s a protected fish. We kept it on the menu for a year or so afterwards, but it was blackened cod. True confession. Other than the fact that we have sold our restaurant to make an ad agency, you’re review was spot-on, and one which your readers can glean much valuable information from, should they find themselves sucked into a wormhole and come out at the end of the last century. Pete, where have you been? We’re a new concept now. When people show up, we’ll still feed them, but we’re primarily serving up ad campaigns these days.

The other review? Archive magazine chose our “Crosses” campaign for Children, Youth and Family Services of New Mexico to be published in their review of the best creative in the world. It’s the third time they’ve featured a Smugglers' Inn campaign this year. It’s not four water towers in the Anoka County Shopper, but we’ll take it.