“There are a lot of review sites,” says Glenn Mulno, the group’s founder and lead moderator. “Go to Google. Go to Yelp. That’s not the point of this.”

Mulno, who works in software development, founded the group in 2020 as a way to support the town’s restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurateurs faced a perilous future, and Mulno sensed that the consequences of troubles emerging online—anonymously and without context or nuance—could be deadly. Initially, it deleted “hundreds” of negative comments from the feed. “The mission of the page is to promote and support restaurants,” he says. “You can’t do that if you’re attacking them or criticizing them.”

But it wasn’t long before the group’s membership, now numbering 6,600, became apparent, in part because Mulno adhered to his own community rules. “Okay – I had to try that special fried clam burger at Cappella Restaurant tonight,” one of his typical posts reads. “I just had to say: WOW!!! It was as delicious as I imagined. Don’t miss this extraordinary special event before it’s over!”

All in all, Needham’s dining scene deserves more than just compliments. It is probably of comparable quality to those found in other suburbs and Boston neighborhoods. There are a few truly top-notch restaurants, as well as plenty of solid joints with kids’ menus and plenty of serviceable pizzas.

But the praise on Needham Restaurants’ Facebook feed is real; any complaints are elsewhere.

And the overall result is definitely the most joyful, soul-affirming part of my internet diet.

You may be wondering: What’s the benefit of a relentlessly optimistic Facebook page? Isn’t it tiring? How can you trust what you read? Is it useful at all?

Fair questions.

But no, I don’t get tired of it. Probably because the outpost of pure positivity isn’t nearly enough to offset the anger and negativity that dominates social media.

Statistics support the idea that negativity is contagious: A paper A study published in September by researchers at the University of Cambridge, which replicated past peer-reviewed findings, showed that negative news articles were shared more frequently than positive ones on Facebook and Twitter. And negative language more generally makes us all feel this way: quite grumpy.

There is zero chance of me encountering content that will demoralize me at Needham Restaurants. For example, I won’t get caught up in an endless thread of comments about whether a lunch spot is part of a larger Zionist conspiracy, as I did recently under a story about a lunch spot that opened a sister restaurant in Boston.

Instead, I’ll see user photos of local dishes and important logistical information: a warning that my family’s pizzeria (Needham House of Pizza) closes for the one week a year summer vacation or the weekends when Hazel’s oven is closed. I don’t take cupcake orders. Restaurants can send information such as adjusted hours, holidays, and special offers to the group once a day. So yes, it is useful.

I’ll get micro obituaries of restaurants that have gone under, like when a 40-year-old sandwich shop closed (“Some more sad news. 2 more weeks for Mighty Subs”) or when we lost our Bertucci’s last summer. February. “As sad as it is, we have so many great options for family and Italian meals,” Mulno wrote.

Perhaps most importantly, I will remind you that there are real people behind the plates of pasta, brightly colored cocktails, and slices of chocolate cake celebrated on air.

“I enjoyed my first breakfast at Fresco today!” Mulno posted in December 2022, when a local eatery reopened after several months of renovations. “The food was delicious and high quality as always. Be patient as we ramp up. While we didn’t have any problems, I was hoping there might be when they get back to work. With kindness and patience you can never go wrong in life!”

Needham Restaurants has recently evolved into a personal support club rather than a virtual club. In September, Mulno invited me to dinner at Sweet Basil with 10 other locals who met through the Facebook group. Each of these Mulno hires serves as an “ambassador” for their favorite local spots, regularly supporting them on air and helping Mulno keep up with operational news.

“It’s kind of an ‘Adopt the Highway’ program,” says Haril Pandya, a lifelong town resident and ambassador for Blue on Highland (a family-friendly New American restaurant with a full bar and big-screen TVs) and Ray’s New. Garden is a Chinese restaurant that offers live music until late hours. Maria Rosa, sitting to my right, joined the group as a cheerleader for Spiga, the Italian restaurant off the highway.

Rosa says the online group has influenced her approach to eating in the real world. Recently, there was an entree that looked nothing like the photo the restaurant uses to promote the dish on its website. Instead of prolonging this issue, he directly appealed to the management. They changed the photo.

Now ambassadors meet once a month for dinner (only in Needham, of course); each person contributes a bottle of wine and photos of their meals to be posted on the group’s page. “Semi-pro tip: horizontally, not from above,” says Mulno, demonstrating the best angles for shots of the octopus slice.

Thanks to these meetings, the group members have become true friends, even eating at each other’s homes. They have and share restaurant ideas that aren’t always 100 percent positive. But the overall takeaway from the Facebook page is the feeling that everyone involved is on the same team and working towards the same goal: a nice meal out.

“I’ve been here 26 years,” Mulno says. “When I moved here, there were only a few sit-down restaurants. It took a long time for the town to reach its current state. When the pandemic started, ‘Oh my God!’ I said. “I didn’t want pizzerias to be the only place left.”

“As good as any pizza place,” he describes it.

Schuyler Velasco A writer living in Needham.