beyond beurre blanc is the home for gutsy, independent restaurant criticism in Minnesota.
It’s a reader-funded publication.
About me!
Hi! I’m Kirstie Kimball. I’m Minnesota’s independent restaurant critic. I also write in Madison, Wisconsin.
My hometown is Minneapolis, but I’ve lived in Boulder, Philadelphia, and the Hudson Valley. I’m a 1/3 time digital nomad who travels the country to eat and tells people what I think is truly exceptional.
My day job has nothing to do with food, but the rest of my life revolves around food. I love fine dining, throwing giant dinner parties, savory dessert, rural places, and N/A drinks.
You can follow me as I eat my way around the country on Instagram.
FAQ
Is this blog a paid site?
Yes and no.
Paid subscribers get:
Exclusive day guides
Access to super secret content about restaurants I don’t think can handle (or want) the general masses
Head’s Up on reviews (hearing what a review is going to be 24 hours before)
Behind-the-scenes on my road-trips
An interactive map (coming December)
Superstar members, my highest tier, get access to me one day a year to plan a day of restaurants (for a trip or just because)
All of my reviews are free and most of my opinion pieces are, too.
Do you pay for all of your meals?
Sure do!
I do not accept invitations to dine in restaurants (including media events and friends and family). Sometimes, restaurants will send me comped dishes, or comp a dish after I’ve ordered it when they realize they sent a not-so-good dish to a critic. I fight to pay for those dishes. If they won’t add it to the bill, I’ll leave cash.
In the case that I get a dish in R&D or I get a comped dish from a (genuine) friend, I do not write about those dishes.
How often do you go to restaurants before you review?
The honest answer to this is: it depends. Most critics go around three times when they review. My number varies from three to twenty, depending on the piece, with my goal being eat over 75% of the menu. This is not always possible, but I surpass that most of the time.
Do you have a code of ethics?
I’m new school without a lot of stuffy rules, meaning sometimes I tease reviews before I’m done, work over very long stretches of time, live post from restaurants, and buck a lot of old trends.
But I have a code of ethics—one that is slightly different than a lot of journalists, for better or worse.
I don’t accept invitations to restaurants and review independently.
I pay for my meals.
I do not compromise my writing for access or platform.
I put guests first and my responsibility to them is to help them have beautiful meals and not be swayed by anything other than the experience in the restaurant (i.e. personal narrative, chef history, etc).
I will not provide a chef private feedback and not include that feedback in a review, though I will provide private feedback of restaurants I am not reviewing.
I do not review the restaurants of my friends and always disclose personal relationships on Instagram.
The above is pretty standard. My code of ethics also includes some not-so-standard (but they should be standard!!!) additions. I can’t always report on the below knowledge, but it informs where I eat.
I don’t eat at restaurants where owners have anti-worker practices or beliefs (wage theft, union busting, overtime violations, etc). Workers are the restaurant.
I don’t eat at the restaurants of abusers or chef/owners with credible reports of racism, sexual assault, violence, workplace abuse, homophobia, or transphobia.
If I find out a chef/owner is sleeping with, propositioning, or having a relationship with one of their workers, I do not go to that restaurant.
See me eating somewhere you think I shouldn’t based on the above three bullets? DM me. It’s off the record.
How do you handle corrections?
I work diligently to uphold accuracy in all of my pieces. Transparency and accountability are two of my core values. When someone notes an inaccuracy in a piece, I analyze if I made a mistake that needs a correction. Then, I move quickly to make a correction. Finally, I audit the reason I made the error to prevent future errors. To date, I have issued one correction. My corrections appear in the following format: Correction: An earlier version of this article…
Do you take on investigative pieces?
No. The personal risk of a lawsuit is too great as an independent critic.
When you subscribe to my beyond beurre blanc (free or paid!), you support independent food writing.
