I’e be totally happy to meet up with you for coffee, beer or barbecue. Just send me an email and we can figure something out – meeting other bloggers is one of the best parts of being one, and I’m always down for discussion.

1. James, sorry we didn’t meet! Instead of power networking I was talking urban gardening with Canarsie Mike.

2. Totally agree with you and Jenny that Hagan was pretty transparent about his project and intentions.

3. That said, I think this could have had a very different outcome under another person’s vision–given a different kind of curiosity, more interest in really connecting with a community in a deeper way (understandably difficult with 93 venues, but still), I imagine something that might not have left people reaching for antacids the morning after.

But there you go–at the least an interesting social experiment.

For me, as a sometimes-writer and always-eater, the write-ups weren’t very interesting. To be fair the poor man had little time to edit. Yes, the videos were lazy on his part but it was the only thing holding each piece together.

Given the growing backlash against Hagan and the project, I wonder if the reviews from his side and his guests will be re-written. On both this and Amy’s Cho’s blog, he is incredulous that some people were not as impressed with him as he is with himself.

Some 93 Plates participants have accused Hagan of being a media whore, only being in this for the website traffic and publicity, but since he openly admits that these are his motivations, I didn’t have much of a problem with it.

I had initially thought Hagan simply wanted to learn more about the New York food world, and was choosing dining partners he could chat with about that, because hey, who wants to eat alone anyway? But no, the guy is concerned with numbers: who’s driven traffic where, how many Twitter followers he has, people have, etc. It’s the ultimate case of you butter my bread, I’ll butter yours, and frankly I’m glad the whole project is over — it initially seemed like plain, good fun, but I think in the end it dragged all of us down a little.

I’m not saying I think Hagan’s a bad guy. The sheer logistics and scope of what he set up — a restaurant for every meal of the day for a whole month, a genius way to get double the exposure by getting food bloggers on board for each excursion — earns my admiration for his boundless energy and production skills. Clearly there’s a place for him out there in the world of gonzo eating, if that’s what he wants; I just don’t think that place should be mixed up with something that passes itself off with journalism or critical writing about food. And I’m also happy to have met a few of you as a result of Hagan’s project, and grateful to him for that. So let me conclude: Thanks, Hagan, but I’m glad you’re moving on.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by theeatenpath: New post! 93 Plates, food bloggers and the difference between hunger and taste – http://bit.ly/93-plates...

Seems like Hagan is an easy, highly visible mascot for many of Food-Blogging’s criticisms, if you even partly side with Robert Sietsema. According to Sietsema, no food blogger is completely innocent of food-writing unprofessionalism. The fact that this shames most of us, but doesn’t seem to shame Hagan, provides some of us with an easy target.

However, there are worse things than a predestined positive review. Even the most casual food-fan equips considerable skepticism when reading self-published opinion. That doesn’t stop any blog post from being worth reading; I still read Yelp! reviews, after all. Rose-colored glasses are easy to identify. After all, they color everything Jazzberry Jam.

Jeff – I think Hagan deserves credit, just not as a food reviewer – something I think is a given in terms of common sense. To review a business and publicly give it a thumb up or thumbs down, especially if you are assuming the position of a foodie/food blogger/tastemaker carries certain responsibilities (for the record, I’ve never considered myself a tastemaker, and I think the term is abhorrent). Was 93 Plates fun and the videos entertaining? Yes. Is Hagan Food Network material? I would say certainly. Was the wrap party a success? Definitely.

Does this mean we should trust the review portion of his posts? My answer is still no.