DC is a "second tier city"

Fedora-clad DC restaurateur and TV food personality Spike Mendelsohn proclaims that it's "nice to be in a second-tier city where you can be a big fish in a small pond."

Local bloggers get snitty.
http://www.thehillishome.com/2011/05/get-over-yourself-mr-mendelsohn/
http://donrockwell.com/index.php?showtopic=16359
http://dcist.com/2011/05/spike_mendelson_dc_is_a_second-tier.php

Discuss.

i like that spike was like third best dc contestant on top chef allstars. guess that makes him second tier

So DC moved up a notch then?

New York City: 468.9 sq mi, pop. 8,175,133
Los Angeles: 498.3 sq mi, pop. 3,833,995
Chicago: 234.0 sq mi, pop. 2,695,598

Washington, DC: 68.3 sq mi, pop. 601,723

beetsnotbeats wrote:
New York City: 468.9 sq mi, pop. 8,175,133
Los Angeles: 498.3 sq mi, pop. 3,833,995
Chicago: 234.0 sq mi, pop. 2,695,598

Washington, DC: 68.3 sq mi, pop. 601,723

So what?

San Francisco, CA: 46.7 sq mi, pop. 805,235

Nobody thinks this place is second tier, especially not chefs.

Is DC not a 2nd tier city?  It's certainly not on the level of NYC, Chicago, SF, and LA.

José Andrés > Spike

andres is an unfair bar to clear

mike isabella > spike

I think Mendelsohn's quote is pretty accurate.  He would be a nobody in NY, Chicago, SF, or LA.  Judging by the amount of words he gets on local blogs, he is a relatively big fish in DC.  But it is probably best not to point that out to the residents of a city that attracts so many self-important types.

How are cities being tiered? If it's population, then of course DC and SF aren't 1st tier.

And just because DC is the nation's capital, that doesn't necessarily make it Tier 1. That's like saying Albany, NY is on the same level as NYC because it's where the governor sleeps.

And what exactly makes SF a Tier 1 city? What does SF have that, say, Seattle doesn't?

Sometimes the governor of NY "sleeps" in more places than just Albany.  

nudge-nudge-wink-wink

Relaxer wrote:
And what exactly makes SF a Tier 1 city? What does SF have that, say, Seattle doesn't?

vansmack.

ggw wrote:
I think Mendelsohn's quote is pretty accurate.  He would be a nobody in NY, Chicago, SF, or LA.  Judging by the amount of words he gets on local blogs, he is a relatively big fish in DC.  But it is probably best not to point that out to the residents of a city that attracts so many self-important types.

maybe

i'd still know who he is either way

top chef is pretty popular

DC is a world class city, a cultural tastemaker like Paris, London,Tokyo, and Berlin.  ::)

Relaxer wrote:
And what exactly makes SF a Tier 1 city? What does SF have that, say, Seattle doesn't?

as far as restaurants go, SF is pretty hard to beat.  it's punching way about it's weight there. 

and, vansmack.

New Orleans has almost an entire genre of food attributed to it but I wouldn't call it a Tier 1 city, despite its voodoo awesomeness.

dosen't  Mendelsohn own fast food restaurants?

Spike's burgers are small and overpriced. He can walk in front of a fucking Metro bus for all I care and this second tier city won't miss him a bit.

Hope he's not behind on his rent AGAIN, either.

ggw wrote:
Fedora-clad DC restaurateur and TV food personality Spike Mendelsohn proclaims that it's "nice to be in a second-tier city where you can be a big fish in a small pond."

Even if D.C. isn't on a par with London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. (although does Chicago really belong in that exalted company either?), this was an incredibly impolitic remark on Spike Mendelson's part.

(My immediate reaction when I saw the thread title was: "Them's fightin' words!")

He could have conveyed the same idea less insultingly by saying that it's "nice to be in a smaller place where you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond."