Schmidt: Mystery Diner offers suggestions

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I don’t know too many people who don’t like to eat out. And most of those people like to dish about the experience afterward, nitpicking the experience to pieces. Ours is a culture of inane details (“The waiter kept blinking while he was taking my order. What’s that about?”).

The weekly Mystery Diner column aims to give readers a snapshot perspective on one meal at one restaurant, once a week. A formal restaurant review it’s not. We don’t visit restaurants three or four times, with at least two people on each visit, and, frankly, we don’t have the credentials to write about food like the pros.

So several people in the newsroom who happen to enjoy eating out every once in a while are responsible for this column. They’re asked to go out to a restaurant somewhere in the county, have a meal, and write some words on how things went.

We publish the column in the Lifestyle section in the Weekend Edition. This weekend’s column is about Pokanoka’s Cafe, in Shabbona Lake State Park. The diner had some fish fry and a burger, both of which are sounding mighty good right now.

The columns aren’t meant to be objective – they’re assessments of dining experiences and so they have to be subjective. But we’re not going to trash a restaurant, either. In that way, these columns do have something in common with full-fledged restaurant reviews: They evaluate restaurants on their own merits. These columns will point out drawbacks of various establishments, sure, but for the most part they’ll suggest things you should try.

Most of all, we hope you enjoy the columns, that they spark discussion and that, maybe, they persuade you to get out and try something new for breakfast, lunch or dinner. As always, you’re encouraged to join the discussion about stories, including the Mystery Diner, online.

•••

In newspapers, you know you’re nearing your one-year anniversary when things start happening all over again. And that’s happening around here.

“Didn’t we just cover that?” has been popping out of my mouth more frequently lately.

A lot can change in a year, and a lot has changed at the Daily Chronicle. We moved our printing facility. We started creating the paper using new software. We redesigned the Web site and saw comments on stories spike. We started sending TextAlerts for breaking news, weather and other information. A year ago, we published seven days a week and now we print six days a week. The nameplate and the rest of the paper got a facelift. People have come and gone.

But the basics are still in place: We’re still striving every day to tell and show important local news, sports and features stories. We’re always trying to give you the right mix of stories that will help you better understand your world.

After 52 weeks, my requests for feedback from you might have taken on the broken record tone I mentioned at the beginning of this segment. But it’s not repeated for health or to occupy a few more characters in this column. Do keep the comments – and, yes, the criticism – coming.

• Reach Daily Chronicle editor Kristen Schmidt at krschmidt@chroniclenewsgroup.com or 815-756-4841, Ext. 257.