No love from Minnesota Monthly (again)

Another "Best Of" issue of Minnesota Monthly and another snub for the cheese/specialty food shops around town.

I have some issues with Best Of compilations in general as long term blog readers may remember. Of course since then we were named "Best Cheese Shop" by the City Pages but that still hasn't really changed my opinion about best of lists.

I'm not actually positive why I care at all about this topic. Obviously it gnaws at me a little bit or I wouldn't be blogging about it two years in a row.

Here's the point: People like lists and they like to be told what is good and what is bad (I will admit that I am amongst those that enjoy the occasional list of the best cat groomer or forklift operators). There are so many choices out there that we look to magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other reviews to tell us where we should spend our precious (dwindling) discretionary income and scarce free time. I get it. Totally.

After the City Pages "best of" we saw a nice increase in business. So these editions obviously have some influence. So why isn't Minnesota Monthly using their influence to promote specialty food shops? They have a robust Food section with arguably the best known food critic in town.

I'm a broken record with this point but I can't resist beating it to a pulp: nothing beats shopping at a specialty store. I'm waiting for someone to make the cheese shop version of "High Fidelity". Actually I don't think of buying cheese as an elitist event. It's definitely a luxury in the sense that it isn't a staple like milk or sandwich bread (or in my case organic pop tarts) but it is not necessarily something only for the wealthy or the foodies among us.

I think both of our stores are very fun places to shop. All of our staff are people that I wouldn't mind sitting next to on a 6 hour bus ride to Chicago (though 9 hours might be stretching it). We have products that we're the only in the midwest to sell and some house made items that are just utterly fantastic. I haven't even mentioned our sandwiches yet...

I don't need to be validated by a magazine to know we're doing a good job, we have lots of loyal customers who tell us when we do something well or when our performance is less than stellar. That's not what it is about. Like I said, we may not even be the best cheese shop on France Ave or the best on Grand Ave.

Maybe there is some other thought behind the MinnMo "best of" edition. What that is I couldn't even speculate. Just be mindful that there is a whole world beyond what exists in those lovely little lists.