Media of any kind helps, so my mindset from the get-go was to make time to talk to anyone who showed any interest in writing about Edzo's.

I was hoping to get some coverage, and expected to get mentioned in maybe the Reader or Time Out, but it seems to have steamrolled and I've been lucky enough to get a ton of favorable reviews and features. You can check the Edzo's website's media page for a pretty long list, if you're interested.

No one piece gave us a huge bump, although the weekend following Steve Dolinsky's Hungry Hound piece on the channel 7 news was insane. Mostly, it's been a slow steady build where all the media coverage has kind of had a longer-term cumulative effect.

This week, though, was a little different. We were on the channel 7 show 190 North on Sunday night, and then in Thursday's Tribune. Tangible uptick in the number of people walking in the door this week.

It's interesting, with all the buzz that surrounds social media, to think about. I'm active in social media as a way to promote the restaurant (duh!), and put in probably 5-6 hours a week total doing Twitter posts, updating Facebook status, and blogging, and have been since the summer, before the restaurant was open.

It's been effective, I think. Not sure how much of the media coverage we'd have gotten if I hadn't done this stuff. But with all the talk about how important social media is, I'm quite surprised at how much more discernible and immediate an increase comes from an appearance in one of the more conventional forms of media, like TV or newspaper. The old, established media are still way bigger and more powerful.

It's easy to forget how many people watch TV and/or read the daily newspaper every day. For me, at least, because I almost never look at either.

Anyway, I thought it was high time that I wrote something about all the media coverage, which has been mostly very positive, and really...as long as they get the name and address correct.....

Another thing that's been very weird is when someone does an anonymous review and eats here a few times, once I read the review I can usually remember the reviewer based on what they describe ordering or whatever interaction I had with them, and it causes this whole "ah, so he's THAT guy!" moment. And then usually a second or two after, I'm thankful that I didn't come off as rude to them or we didn't screw up their order.

So, thanks, to all the fine media institutions who have talked about Edzo's, and also, anyone who watches or reads them. Keep it coming, every little bit helps!

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