Being a feature, Wednesday’s Restaurant Guide understandably bends the rules of good journalism. However, I marvel at Tyler Weaver’s insult. Either he writes flippantly without reason, and doesn’t belong writing for a newspaper, or he fails to understand the true quality of five-star cuisine, and doesn’t belong writing about food.

I expect a restaurant guide to give informed opinions comparing unfamiliar restaurants. Such should not be based on the lack of options when Provo’s sidewalks roll up. Just because poor students can grab a cheap quickie on the corner in the middle of the night, doesn’t make for quality dining.

Del Taco as five-star cuisine is an insult to culinary arts. Is Del Taco a staple to many students’ diets? Yes. Is Del Taco well-known and loved? Yes. However, 49-cent, half-ounce, cardboard tacos are not rateable by any stars. Five-star cuisine never has been and never will be wrapped in paper. 

Since the chain is already a staple to students, why is it in the Restaurant Guide? Wasn’t the point of the feature to showcase some of the more obscure restaurants? Yet there it is, glaring at me from the page. Just as it glares at me as I drive down Bulldog Blvd.  It’s just as obscure as the McDonald’s across the street.

I’d guess that Weaver didn’t consult colleagues Bekah Demordaunt and Kristin Jensen.  In their companion article written to Weaver’s insult, they wrote, “Often, using the Internet can help students avoid the same old chain restaurants”[like Del Taco].

Jeremy Butler
Idaho Falls, Idaho