"Lines are overrated, and totally empty restaurants are underrated"

Tyler Cowen's post today on restaurants with lines and empty restaurants was best summarized by two of his commenters.

dan1111:

I read it as, don’t let emptiness deter you if you have other reason to think it’s good. Which is a potentially useful rule. It also has been true in my experience.

The larger point I see is that popularity-based measures are only as good as the information level of the people doing the rating.

John Thacker:

[I]f the line is evidence of a temporary fad, then that’s a good reason to avoid it, from Tyler’s point of view. The food isn’t any better now that it’s a fad right now.

And yes, one has to be fairly well-informed in order to decrease the use of existing fads and rather be the kind of person who helps starts fads or “likes things before (and after) they were cool.”

The post itself is also worth a look. Tyler Cowen is an economist who blogs about DC ethnic dining.