Hey Grouponistas: Welcome to my (kitchen) nightmare!
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By Tim Mullaney, Special for USA TODAY
Here's today's fascinating experiment in the relative power of old vs. new media.
We all know Groupon, the social-buying phenomenon that has become the fastest-growing startup of all time and yadda yadda, can really fill a restaurant. We know that putting pictures of a nasty-looking or disorganized kitchen can empty a dining room out.
So you can understand my wife's amusement when she popped on her phone this morning and her daily Groupon was for $15 off a $30 check at lunch, or $30 off a $60 dinner, at the Spanish Pavilion in Harrison, N.J. -- a paella joint that did a turn in January as the pigeon for famously demure Chef Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on Fox.
"The freshest thing in this kitchen is that pigeon flying around, and he's lucky he's still alive," Ramsey harrumphed. But to be fair, the restaurant's reviews on tripadvisor are pretty good, even if being the #1 restaurant in Harrison is a little like, uh, faint praise. (Sorry, the other possibilities are too un-PC to use here).
By 10:40, 169 people had bought the coupon. Advantage, Groupon. It's a brave new world, folks. Or else we'll just do anything for a bargain.
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