Marqus R. 5 Time Yelp Elite, 2015 Gold Elite, Winner of the 2013 BPB Yelptime Achievement Award.

To recap, this will be a very unique section on my blog. I came up with this idea after watching Yelp and Urbanspoon take off. All of a sudden anyone with a computer, and now a smart phone, can write reviews. Who are these people? What makes them qualified to do reviews and in some cases write nasty stuff that can cost someone their livelihood? So I’m going to flip the script on these so-called ” Reviewers” and I’m going to write about them and review them.

I will use my rating scale of Beers:

Four = Outstanding

Three = Good

Two = OK

One = Needs work

Zero = Sucks (No beer is never a good thing.)

Marqus R. Interesting person. I remember when he rolled on the Yelp scene. He was not active on the talk threads but he would pop up at every Elite Event. I’m not a fan of going to these “free” events and seeing he was attending almost all of them made me skeptical of his intentions. He wasn’t on the talk threads, but he was everywhere. I didn’t give this dude much thought, but as time progressed this guy was pumping out a lot of reviews in a short amount of time. I started reading them and these were not your one sentence “this place sucks” or “it was great” reviews. His reviews were lengthy and thorough. To this date he has written 2462 reviews and taken 8106 pictures.

Here is his profile: http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=IwHLuykqqmGVNHJ_UCwXWg

Three years ago, the Broward Palm Beach Yelp Community, which I helped create, hosts a Yelpie Awards Ceremony. It was to recognize the best Yelp reviewers in the community. Well, this dude Marqus wins the first Yelptime Achievement  Award which is basically the MVP of the community. I get nominated for some bull$hit category and ended up losing later in the night. So, I see this and I’m like, who the fukc is this guy Marqus? I admit, I was jealous and pissed at the same time. I have only been to 2 Yelp events…one of them was this Yelpie Event. My main focus of attending was representing Yelp as a nominee and meeting Marqus.

The big day comes and I meet Marqus. I will tell you this, this guy is the real deal. We were talking  about shooting and his boat etc..My wife and I walk away. I’m thinking, this guy is a modern day renaissance man. He has traveled the world, eaten all kinds of cuisines, and is a seasoned man. As cocky as am with my reviews, I realize Marqus is better than me and I’ll explain why.

Marqus’s Reviews

His writing ability is off the charts. He has an old school, eloquent writing style. I really enjoy reading his reviews and viewing his photos. What kinda sets him apart and makes him credible/legitimate in my eyes is his reviews on parks and cities. Writing a review on a park isn’t going to get you a free drink or meal. Writing reviews like these shows Marqus loves to write and is passionate about it. He isn’t afraid to push the envelope on the places he reviews either. Just as much as he enjoys writing about parks etc… He also loves his sex shops and gay bars. Yes, Marqus is gay and proud. Another reason why he is legit, he is not afraid to be himself. I highly recommend you read some of these reviews because you will find them entertaining and informative. LOL

The Interview

What Marqus didn’t know was that for him to get the highest rating of 4 beers with me he had to be interviewed…Yes, by me. Him failing to answer my questions, some personal, would disqualify him for my top rating. Not to disappoint, Marqus agrees to answer my questions and I hope you enjoy them.

The Definition of the Name, Marqus.

GENDER: Male

USAGE: Marqus is not a popular first name. It is more often used as a boy (male) name.

People having the name Marqus appear to be originating from all over the world.

Marqus, your name is a mystery almost like you. Tell me about your name, is it a family name or what?

*As for the name, Marqus, it was a mere fluke solely attributable to someone who, around the time of my birth, had illegible handwriting or a serious hearing problem. According to my parents, my first name was meant to merely be “Mark” which in fact does appear on most early documents. However, since there are so many other people with the name of Mark, I elected to continue on with my original given name, albeit a mistake, of Marqus.

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You seem to travel a lot. Do you speak any foreign languages and where is your favorite place to vacation and why?

*My early childhood language was Swedish, which I can still speak but not very well. However, it does come in handy for reading labels when shopping in IKEA’s food market. I have and do travel a lot. I’ve been just about everywhere with the exception of the Arctic’s. When I was in my twenties I took off for a couple of years, went to London, bought a 650 BSA motorcycle toured all of Europe. Then on other motorbikes, Brazil, China, Canada, the United States and various other areas. I still do a lot of vacation traveling but now rarely by motorcycle as I’m hesitant about pushing my accident free luck any further.

*My favorite place to visit and vacation is Furnace Creek located in the heart of Death Valley in California’s Mojave desert. The vast desert areas around Furnace Creek became a favorite of mine as I lived there for several years as a child. It was only small village with a population of around 25, which remains its approximate population size today. I was the only child that lived there. A teacher used to come around once a month to give my mother school lessons with which to educate me at home, but I had some great little jobs like carrying canvas water bags to hang off of radiator caps or hood ornaments on the front of the cars to help with their radiator cooling systems and appeared on some early kinescope film ads as the dirty little boy in 20 Mule Team Borax television ads which sponsored a television series called “Death Valley Days.” I also had a lot of fun playing around Scotty’s Castle, an incredible castle complete with a pipe organ and everything else of a castle located in nearby Grapevine and listening to some really tall but factual tales as told to me by Walter Scotty, better known as “Death Valley Scotty,” who had been with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.

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Anyone who follows your reviews knows you are gay. BTW are you single? You seem to push the envelope with your reviews on Yelp. The ones I’m talking about are the sex shops and obscure alternate lifestyle bars/clubs. How many reviews have been removed/deleted from Yelp for probably offending someone. How does that make you feel when Yelp removes them?

*I’m single now. You might call me a widow or a widower; being gay, I suppose either expression might do. I had a partner who was a college professor for 14 years, 10 years younger than me, somewhat of a health freak, but who had a sudden stroke and passed away.

*I’m delighted to hear that you’ve read some of my sex shop reviews though, to be politically correct, are now referred to as being adult entertainment reviews. I love the obscure and alternate of everything including sex shops, gay bars, bath houses, clubs, events and the like, and it doesn’t bother me in the least to Yelp about them figuring somebody ought to do it, and if that be the case, who better than me? I try to keep them factual, above board and discreet. As such I have yet to have heard of anyone being offended by any of my Yelps with regards to gay bars or sex clubs or the like. To the contrary, I’m always receiving complements those reviews and I have a good number of individuals who are avid (note I didn’t use the word “religious” LOL!) followers.After all, gays and gay tourism brings what has been estimated to be nearly a billion dollars a year into our local economy. They charter entire cruise ships, have nearly twenty gay guesthouses catering to their lifestyle and needs and generally have every businesses occupying the entire length of “The Drive” in Wilton Manors. Which, by the way, is a city noted as having the highest concentration of gays per capita in the entire world. Hence, gay is a rather big deal around here, economically and socially, and as such not to be ignored or overlooked.

As for ever have had one of my Yelp reviews deleted, I don’t know of any though I once heard a rumor that someone was going to report me to Yelp headquarters for some of my envelope pushing gay bar or sex reviews. However, as you know Yelp headquarters is located in San Francisco, not exactly a Bible Belt city, so for whatever I never heard anything more about it.

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You know I have a love hate relationship with Yelp. There are a lot of Yelpers out there that do this review thing for the free stuff and attention. Have you ever called out any of these frauds? If yes, what happened? And, if no, why not?

*I don’t really have any hate thing at all with Yelp. There may be a few things with which I may not fully agree but relatively minor, so it’s a pretty solid love affair for me. I assume there might be some Yelpers that do review things for free stuff, but if there are, I don’t know of them. For myself, it’s merely a social thing. Yelp has given me a lot. When I travel, I use it all the time in order to located good restaurants or other establishments and merely write my reviews in order to help others as they have helped me with their reviews. Then to sort of give back in return for what Yelp has given to me. Now I will admit that, being rather well known and a somewhat highly visible character in the area, I have been offered some freebies like a drink or a meal by some business operators but can honestly say I have never ever accepted any nor will never do that as such would clearly give the appearance of an impropriety as well as diminish my credibility as an unbiased reviewer.

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What’s your views on the current state of Yelp and if you were CEO of Yelp for one day and could change something what would it be?

*As I really have zip knowledge of computers and social media I wouldn’t have the vaguest idea of how I would such a situation. The only thing I concern myself with is reading reviews of others and writing the best, most informative useful reviews I can write.

If I’d have any issue, it wouldn’t be with Yelp itself, but maybe more with some of my fellow Yelpers. Like please don’t write one or two liners such as: “I ate here. The food was good.” Then with Yelp having so many from every type of background one can think of, I might encourage them to show a little bit more of their background diversity in their writing.

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Do you cook and if yes what is your favorite dish to prepare?

*Yes, I do cook and in the past have even entered some of the contests of the “Chefs vs. Amateur Cooks,” but with more embarrassing than successful results. My favorite dish which I prepare at home is a lobster etouffee, but I also make my own gravlax as well as simple dilled fish dishes using the fresh fish I catch off my own boat.

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Name me your top ten of restaurants in Broward?

*For what they are and not necessarily in this order:

Market 17

Rainbow Palace

Eduardo De San Angel

Laspada’s (no laughing!) (Just for what it is, it’s good.)

Steak 954

Boatyard

Shuck ‘n Dive (For what it is and their green fried tomatoes are heaven)

Casa D’Angelo

Runyon’s Restaurant

Truluck’s

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Name me your top five GLBT Clubs in Broward?

*When all those symbolic letters like GLBT are used, and there are many more that people have added, it all comes out to be about as meaningless as a bowl of alphabet soup. There really aren’t any meaningful gay clubs that cater to all of what is meant by the letters GLBT, though there are huge organizations such as the community service nonprofit Pride Center located at Equality Park on North Dixie. But as far as gay bars might go, I like the Alibi, Tropics, Hunters, Monas, the Ramrod and the Village Pub. How about you stopping by one of them, having a beer with me and giving me a straight guys impression of them? It would only be fair as I’ve Yelped out my impressions of some of your straight hangs.

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We all have special reviews that we think were a home run. Give me one review that you feel you hit it out of the park.

*The reviews I thought would be hits out of the ballpark have generally been flops, so I’m the worst judge of it. I write a lot of reviews of on places having “local flavor,” like our drawbridges, Intracoastal sandbar swimming areas and the like, but they don’t seem to go over very big. But then I wrote one that I didn’t think would amount to much about the Bal Harbour Shops wherein I threatened to return dressed in drag, didn’t think was all that good, might get me banished from there and maybe from from Yelp too, but not only drew a lot of favorable comments but even earned a Yelp ROTD (Review of the Day).

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Last question, you travel back in time and meet yourself at age 18. What would you say and why?

*If I were 18 looking at me today, I’d say: “Marqus, you’ve been a very fortunate very lucky guy; job well done, life well lived.”

If me today giving myself some words of wisdom at age 18, I’d say: “Be adventurous in all things, get a good education, have lots of fun, don’t do anything you may later in life regret like playing sports in which you get hurt, especially you knees…you might live to regret that…… don’t stay in the sun too long, use lots of sun blocker lotions, but above all know who you are, be what you are and be happy you are what you are.

Thank you Dan, I’m honored….Marqus

Verdict

Well there you have it! It’s easy to see why Marqus deserves 4 over flowing beers as a reviewer/writer. My advice to restaurant owners, retail managers, bath house operators, city managers, park superintendents and Yelp…Marqus is as real as it gets. I would study his picture and be on your toes if he walks in. If he says your place sucks and needs improvement then it SUCKS and NEEDS IMPROVEMENT! I would personally stay away from the place. On the other hand, if he says a place is outstanding, I would bookmark it and make plans to check it out.

As for his invitation to hang out with him in a gay bar, HELL YES sir! As a matter fact, I would like to do a daytime gay bar crawl and invite other folks to come too. Having Marqus as a host would be priceless! BUT, I have list of places I have never been to that I want to hit. They are, Thirteen Even, Thirteen, Rumors, and Mind Your Manors. You should know me Marqus, I do my research on the real good places…not just dives, sir!

Lastly, Marqus has it all wrong.  I’m honored that he respected me enough to answer my questions. If you bump into Marqus please shake his hand and tell him Dan I Cook said he is legend. Stay Hungry!