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    Rating the Star System

    Dallas restaurant critic kerfuffle raises questions about star ratings

    Teresa Gubbins
    Nov 7, 2014 | 12:17 pm

    In the ongoing controversy surrounding the credibility of restaurant reviews at the Dallas Morning News, one of the chief complaints is the newspaper's (mis)application of stars. The topic surfaced again during a meeting by Dallas restaurateurs, who recently convened in an effort to change the newspaper's broken restaurant coverage.

     

    The often-confusing and inconsistent assignment of stars on restaurant reviews has been a pet peeve of chefs and restaurateurs such as John Tesar and Shannon Wynne; the latter owns restaurants such as Meddlesome Moth, Lark on the Park and Bird Cafe in Fort Worth.

     

    A topic that's been raised many times over the years, stars are a ball of confusion, both in how they work and why anyone cares. But they matter to restaurateurs because stars can affect their bottom lines.

     

     History of DMN stars
    Stars for restaurant reviews go back to Michelin, the French guide-book company, which introduced its star system for restaurant reviews in 1926. Michelin's system has three stars and focuses on food.

     
     

      Stars are a ball of confusion, both in how they work and why anyone cares. But they matter to restaurateurs because stars can affect their bottom lines.

     
     

    The Dallas Morning News also factors in service and atmosphere, and it uses a five-star system, like Yelp. But the stars have a tortured past, from the well-intentioned misuse of their early days, to the more recent mishaps resulting from the newspaper's delegation of star management to unschooled outsiders.

     

    Prior to 2007, the DMN had a system that, though flawed, was mostly functional. Restaurants received three separate ratings for food, service and atmosphere. Those three ratings were combined into a final average. Breaking out the factors gave reviewers the flexibility of assigning, say, four stars for the food to a dive.

     

    A great fried-chicken place could celebrate the four stars it received for food and ignore the one star it got for atmosphere, while a fine-dining restaurant could justifiably be proud for getting four stars in all three areas.

     

    There were also half-star ratings, for an additional four rating slots.

     

    But there was a flaw: The newspaper would not publish one-star reviews. Nobly concerned that a one-star review could smite a restaurant with a single stroke, management forbade them entirely. If a reviewer turned in a one-star review, it got killed. Even two-star reviews were discouraged.

     

    This policy was friendly to the restaurant community. But a five-star system that never uses the bottom three ratings is inaccurate.

     

    When Bill Addison was hired as dining critic in 2007, the newspaper gave him free rein to remake the ratings system. Addison eliminated the half stars, and his changes put the paper in line with other publications. But it was a reality check for restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth and source of confusion to readers accustomed to the old format.

     

    Addison, however, was a fair-minded and experienced critic whose application of stars was consistent and well-considered.

     

    After his departure, the system was revamped further when the three-part ratings were consolidated into a single star.

     

     Who cares about stars
    Two groups use stars, for different reasons: diners and industry organizations. Diners are the group that concern Shannon Wynne.

     

    "How many people actually read through the reviews?" he asks. "The whole point of the star system is for people to look at the stars and move on."

     

    Industry organizations are the category that concern John Tesar. "At the end of the year, when 'best of' lists are made by national publications, they'll only look at places that have been awarded the highest number of stars," he says.

     

    For restaurants at a certain level — the Fearing's, the Mansions, the Stephan Pyles — four-star and higher ratings translate into invitations from food festivals, James Beard nominations and travel magazine touts, and that trickles down into out-of-town interest which translates into money.

     

    "It's not about the awards, it's about the income," Tesar says. "If you're a restaurant at a certain level, it has the potential to seriously affect your bottom line."

     

    The newspaper's current single-rating format doesn't address the differences between kinds of establishments. Pitting a restaurant with higher aspirations such as Proof + Pantry, which uses Riedel glassware even for water glasses, against a barbecue restaurant that serves its food on a paper-lined tray, isn't helpful for readers.

     

    There's also, in recent years, what feels like a disconnect between the tone of the review and the number of stars that has left chefs and readers scratching their heads.

     

    Regardless of the whims or biases of individual critics, local restaurateurs are rallying for a better system that treats restaurants more fairly. Some of the suggestions have included the following:

     

       
    • Reverting to the old method of awarding separate stars for food, service and atmosphere
    •  
    • Getting rid of stars entirely and going with a three-pronged "good, very good, excellent" system
    •  
    • Separating restaurants into price groups
    •  
    • Eliminating the five-star rating altogether
    •  
     

    "The current star rating system is weighted to the higher end," Wynne says. "Five stars is described as 'exceptional,' and four stars is described as 'excellent.' But what is the difference between exceptional and excellent? And if Dallas has only two restaurants rated as 'exceptional,' doesn't the five-star rating seem to be a waste?

     

    "It's like taking a telescope used for looking at solar systems 50 million light years away and looking at Richardson, Texas, with it," he says. "It's too fine a scalpel for the type of surgery we have here."

    Even the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek doesn't have five stars.

    Dining room at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas
      
    Photo courtesy of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts
    Even the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek doesn't have five stars.
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    Ice Cream News

    Brooklyn Italian ice & ice cream shop makes Texas debut in Richardson

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jul 7, 2025 | 5:05 pm
    Uncle Louie G's
    scontent-dfw5-3.xx.fbcdn.net
    Uncle Louie G's

    A small, artisan frozen dessert shop from Brooklyn has made its Texas debut: Called Uncle Louie G's Italian Ice & Ice Cream, it's now open in Richardson at 7522 Campbell Rd., where it's scooping up Italian ice, ice cream, and related frozen desserts with a real authentic East Coast vibe.

    Uncle Louie G's was founded by namesake Louie G. decades ago, then expanded by family members in the 2000s. It's now owned by brother-and-sister team Melissa and Ernie Aiello, and has 10 locations in the New York-New Jersey-Staten Island area. It's famous for its blue-striped awning, and flavors with tribute names like NYPD Blue, FDNY Cherry, Coney Island Cotton Candy, Holi Cannoli, and Soprano Spumoni.

    DFW is big on shaved ice, which differs from Italian ice both in texture and ingredients. Italian ice is smooth and creamy, like sorbet, and is made by churning ingredients — water, fruit, sugar — just as you churn ice cream. Shaved ice is a block of ice that's shaved, then flavored with syrup.

    Unlike the sugar and flavoring used by many shaved ice vendors, Uncle Louie G's The Italian ice is made with real fruit. And its ice cream is 14 percent butterfat (Haagen Dazs is 14 to 16 percent).

    They have nearly 50 flavors of ice and 34 flavors of ice cream, some with a Northeast slant like Spumoni, Maple Walnut, and Black Razzberry. There are novel fruit flaves like banana, cantaloupe, watermelon, and passion fruit; rich decadent flavors like pistachio, creamsicle, and chocolate peanut-butter cup; and quirky, inventive flavors like blue bubble gum, cake batter, chocolate jelly ring, cotton candy, and sweetish fish.

    Ice cream flavors range from rocky road to rum raisin to salted caramel to chocolate Nutella to butter pecan. Stores choose a smaller selection to feature daily.

    Milkshakes also have a Northeast vibe, with flavors such as blackout and old-fashioned black and white, featuring chocolate syrup with vanilla ice cream. There are also iced coffee drinks, sundaes, ice cream floats, old fashioned egg cream, and a frozen hot chocolate.

    The Richardson location is a franchise from Zabi Surti and her husband, who left their careers in healthcare and the aviation industry and moved here three years ago.

    "We previously lived in Savannah, Georgia, and would go get Italian ice," Surti says. "When we moved to Dallas, the Texas heat got to us, and we went looking for something sweet, light, and refreshing. But there were no Italian ice places here."

    They loved Uncle Louie because of the quality and the fact that the menu offers something for everyone — from avowed ice cream fans to dairy-free. The space has 4 to 5 tables inside and an outside patio.

    "We looked at many locations but we wanted to be part of a nice neighborhood with residents who would appreciate this kind of gourmet shop," Surti says. "The university is nearby, the neighborhood is great, and the area does not have anything like it — capturing the essence of classic Italian frozen desserts with a modern twist."

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