06/11/07
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By Emily Gould

Comment by tudobem: I LOVE that Kathy Hilton was on the phone with Walters when Paris called her. Barbara Walters has seriously lost... more » | Other threads

  • feuds

    Frank Bruni Doesn't Want Your Criticism

    This morning, 1,000-year-old Cindy Adams responded to a jibe Frank Bruni stuck into his New York Times review last week of Katz's Deli in which he noted that the restaurant had been around since 1888, "longer than Cindy Adams." Har! And she responded in kind:
    LAST week the New Yorker immortal ized me. Everybody mentioned it. Last week the restaurant critic of our city's broadsheet shpritzed me. Even typesetters mustn't read Mr. Bruno, or whatever his name is, because nobody mentioned it. He wasn't critiqueing star chef Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin, the town's Number One restaurant, or owner Sirio Maccioni's Le Cirque, the world's most famous restaurant. Somewhere between sauerkraut and pastrami he said Katz's Deli opened 1888, which was even "before Cindy Adams." It's actually a funny line. Someday I'll have to read him - or let my dogs pour over him.
    But it's unlikely anyone will be discussing this in the comments section on Bruni's blog. On a New York Times internal wiki's page, "General Guidelines for Approving Reader Comments on Blogs," there are the rules you'd expect: no profanity, nothing "grossly off topic," English only, that sort of thing. But then there's a special section about Frank Bruni's blog Diner's Journal. More »
    06/04/07
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    By Doree Shafrir

    Comment by hominaray: That's weird, I thought the last person in the world who read Cindy Adams died three years ago. more » | Other threads

  • boys will be boys

    Is McNally's Allegation of Bruni Sexism Sexist?

    Balthazar and Pastis owner and possible presidential candidate Keith McNally added further flame to his feud with New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni when the Dining section printed McNally's passive-aggressive letter to the paper today. We've already posted the draft, but the published version emphasizes the point that even William Grimes, "the last male restaurant reviewer for The New York Times," gave more stars to chick chefs. But in his femiladyist comparison, McNally neglects to mention any of the Times's female restaurant critics (Mimi Sheraton, Ruth Reichl, Marian Burros). Does McNally think only men can be sexist? There's a complicated word for that, isn't there? —Josh
    05/16/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by Trackback: · Sam Talbot's next project "a lot bigger than a restaurant" [NYP] · PETA FedExes a ton of horseshit to... more » | Other threads

  • the trouble with critics

    Join The Bruni Cause—Or The Bruni Effect

    A whorl of unanswerable questions have been encircling the hardbody of New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. Keith McNally accused him of lady-hating. Phallic restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow accused him of pettiness. Now The Observer's Chris Shott accuses him of influence. Shott claims restaurants live or die by the Bruni review, a charge which Bruni accurately denies. More »
    05/09/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by TedSez: I think it's time for a moratorium on the use of "negging" as an ironic way of indicating criticism. According... more » | Other threads

  • sour grapes and convenient femiladyism

    Frank Bruni Hates Ladies, Claims Crazy McNally

    Keith McNally and his new restaurant Morandi were recently on the business end of Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni's bitch stick. So McNally did what all powerhouse restaurateurs seem to be doing recently in the wake of a harsh negging by Bruni—go totally postal. Jeffrey Chodorow, when his ghastly Kobe Club was flayed, claimed personal persecution; but McNally is of a savvier cloth. In what can only be termed a manifesto, published today on Eater, McNally claims that Bruni doesn't just hate Morandi, but hates all women. More »
    05/08/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by flathead: for a gay guy, bruni sure gets slapped around a lot as a closet heterosexual more » | Other threads

  • their master's voice

    Recognizing Frank Bruni's Voice

    Restaurateurs take note! Come Sunday, the voice of Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni—that soufflé of mystery!—will gain greater exposure beyond whatever radio station plays the Times stuff. (We don't think our AM band goes down that low, so we wouldn't know.) Now the former Rome political correspondent has given his Stentorian voice to a slideshow that accompanies his piece about Apuglia. As the National Center for Voice and Speech writes, "voices are as distinctive as our faces—no two are exactly alike." So what should concerned chefs listen for if they want to ID the Bruni? More »
    05/04/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by PocketWizard: i don't care how he sounds. i just want to know when and where the cage match between him and... more » | Other threads

  • the pop-culturizing of criticism

    What's Dark, Bald and Drives Frank Bruni Nuts?

    Yes, it's Max Brenner, the wacky Israeli chocolate place-entity that invaded New York a while back. Only a Jewish mother or a Catholic gay could venture into a sweet chocolate wonderland and return so concerned. But sure—there is no surprise in the fact that Max Brenner is a gimmicky shitty crapshow, whose chocolate isn't even that great. Still it's a handy spot, because it gives the Times restaurant critic an excuse to bitch and make Willy Wonka references, two of his favorite things. But what's next—reviewing a McDonaldland playground in the Bronx? The search for the best Dunkin' Donuts? Defining the boundaries of high and low culture in critic-land is gonna get increasingly more difficult. —josh More »
    05/02/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by schvitzatura: Their parents promptly ordered chocolate martinis, made of creamy milk chocolate and vanilla vodka, with gummy bears instead of olives... more » | Other threads

  • frank bruni

    Bruni Brutalizes Morandi

    New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni one-stars Keith McNally's new Morandi with a review notable for its level and venomous prolixity. If this is how he describes something as good, it's a super thing that he doesn't have children, unless you believe that article about the inverse power of praising kids, in which case it's a "desperate inconveniently hokey insane uncomfortable odd hackneyed" thing that he doesn't have children. Let's break it all down by word choice! More »
    04/25/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by Trackback: Ninja 9/9/05: What a good time that all was. Twenty-four hours later, there's a general consensus that the Bruni... more » | Other threads

  • frank bruni

    Frank Bruni Expects To Die At The Table

    Still giddy from three starring Esca, Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni tackles the hot topic of the Heimlich Maneuver. After interviews with professionals around the city (including Vicki Freeman, co-owner of Cookshop, Five Points and Provence) the conclusion is this: If you start choking in a restaurant, you're so screwed. "It seems that most workers haven't taken even some hour-long tutorial, though they're around that poster enough, several managers said, that they've probably paused, read the instructions and committed them to memory." That is to say, either they'll be squeezing you like a this or sprinting off to find whatever godforsaken hinterland to which the Heimlich poster has been remanded. Our advice: Find the nearest chair and slam yourself into it solar plexus first. —josh More »
    04/20/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by the-cubicle-dweller: @Itsjustcatnip: Until I read the post, I thought this was an advertisement for the hookups in the Port Authority's mens... more » | Other threads

  • new york observer

    The 'New York Observer' At The Four Seasons

    The significance of holding last night's party to celebrate the New York Observer and its new website at the Four Seasons restaurant was intentional, obvious, and not at all lost on anyone. Despite its recent Frank Bruni demotion to two New York Times stars, the restaurant remains the symbolic and probably actual center of New York old-guard media power. After so many years of playing gadfly to the media, politics, and real estate elite of this city, the Observer and its boy-owner and his advisers chose to make a very specific sort of statement. More »
    04/19/07
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    By Doree Shafrir

    Comment by dishalicious: @the cajun boy: Good one. But I am so crushing on the Kush. Yummy. more » | Other threads

  • frank bruni

    East Village EU v. Brussels EU

    When New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni walked into the troubled East Village restaurant EU recently, he entered a fractious arena, one rife with history, short on harmony and big with promise. Beset by liquor license woes, chef woes, a flood, EU seemed born under a bad sign. But with a new chef and all liquored up, EU was emerging finally from its dark period and the question on everybody's mind was: Would Bruni stick a no-star nail into the coffin? He didn't. Brundle, in a rather generous review today, hailed chef Akhatar Nawab's menu but bemoaned the general unevenness of the experience, "its atmosphere can be infectiously lively or insufferably chaotic." So Bruni one-starred it. But how does EU the restaurant compare to its namesake, The European Union? More »
    04/11/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by Trackback: · Hell has frozen over: NYC ICY to return [Grub St] · Matamoros is a good place for cheap-ass tacos... more » | Other threads

  • wild salmon

    Wild Salmon: Chodorow Does Fish

    In the same cavernous space that held the inappropriately named English is Italian (turns out English is the New Failure), Jeffrey Chodorow's newest restaurant Wild Salmon opens to the public today, Good Friday. Last night, So-So Thursday, we tried it out. It seems to be a Chodorow signature these days to have weird whatnots hanging from the ceiling. Instead of Kobe Club's swords, Wild Salmon features a school of 249 copper injection-mold salmon hanging by fishing line from the ceiling. Caught in the wild race upstream, the mildly abstracted fish bring to mind gilded spermatazoa. One is surprised not to find a giant ovum on one end of the restaurant. More »
    04/06/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by chameleonz: looking at the menu I would guess that 90% of the fish is being shipped from the west coast and... more » | Other threads

  • restaurants

    Chodorow v. Bruni: The Rematch

    Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow and Times food critic Frank Bruni have mad cow beef. Think of it as Suge Knight v. P. Diddy without guns or any sort of street cred. Ever since Bruni flayed Choad's Kobe Club, the two have been in a cat fight—well, mostly it's been Choad on Brundle, with the latter disdaining the former. But Chodorow is opening up Wild Salmon on April 6th, the latest avatar in the space where English is Italian died the death of a thousand cuts. There's a new (unheard of) chef from Seattle, Charles Ramseyer—and a chance for the feud to dissolve! On the other hand, there's the chance for it to escalate, something we would love to see. Bruni has three options: love it, hate it, ignore it. Each action has its own opposite and not at all equal reaction. Here's our quick flow chart explaining. More »
    03/30/07
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    By Joshua Stein

    Comment by firebrand: Karion - Ray's is pretty touristy, but granted, where the fruits of the sea are concerned it's not half bad.... more » | Other threads