Charlottesville Restaurants and Social Media: A Tour of Five Fine Dining Establishments Online

C & O Restaurant has a blog, which has post from May and . . . November. Can we expect that posts will now pick up with some regularity?

Maya is on Facebook but they have set up a profile, not an official page for the business (this is the wrong approach — read more about pages vs. profiles here). One shouldn’t have to “friend” a restaurant. You can like a restaurant, but it’s really tough to be friends with it (you never call me!)

Michie Tavern may be one of the oldest restaurants in Charlottesville, but they’re still hip enough to be using social media. The historic restaurant has a Facebook page and they allow fans to comment on the wall (sometimes they interact with those who have posted there.)

Escafe has a blog. OK, not really. I’m sorry I made you go look, but they should be, too.

Downtown Grille surprised me with a Facebook page and a Twitter presence. This old-school, steaks, bourbon and cigars establishment doesn’t seem like it would be leading the pack in social media use, but indeed, there they are. While I’m thrilled to see Downtown Grille using Twitter, there’s room for improvement with more frequent tweets and interaction — I want to be tempted to come to the restaurant with tweets about menu items and specials. Just a reminder of the fabulous meals I have had there makes me want to go.

This is a selection of some of the finer restaurants in Charlottesville – others, including Ivy Inn, Hamilton’s, Fleurie, The Local, L’Etoile, have no discernible social media presence, other than the throngs of locals and visitors blogging and tweeting about them, posting their visits to their Facebook profiles or checking in on FourSquare.

In upcoming posts I’ll look at what other, more casual dining establishments are doing with social media and how it’s working for them. I’ll also share some tips on what these businesses could be doing, to gain a competitive edge and remain top of mind with those dining out in Charlottesville.