Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

Now You Love Me
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

On with his head! Jeffery Chodorow, who last week suggested in the NYT that he would lop off the head of reviewer Frank Bruni for panning his latest restaurant, this week suddenly loves him after he praised his room service at a hotel. WWD:

When New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni praised Ono's room service fare at the Hotel Gansevoort on Wednesday, some saw a peace offering to Ono owner and self-declared Bruni archenemy Jeffrey Chodorow, who publicly banned Bruni from all his restaurants after the critic savaged his restaurant Kobe Club. Wednesday's feature on room service, conceived before Bruni's Kobe Club review but executed after it, did more than praise Ono's wasabi béarnaise. It also sent a message to Chodorow that, despite his promise to handsomely reward an employee who bars the critic from any of his restaurants, Bruni found a way in anyway. Reached at his restaurant opening in London, Chodorow acknowledged the loophole Bruni found: Chodorow's obligations to the hotel. "And even if the room service waiter recognized him, he wouldn't be able to turn around and take the meal away, either," he admitted.

But Chodorow had a new appreciation for the critic: "I think these are the kinds of stories he ought to do. They're interesting stories — I think it provides a more objective basis," he said. He clarified: "I think Frank Bruni is a good writer, I just don't feel that he's a professional who can be a restaurant critic." Latest on the list of unintended benefits of Chodorow taking out a $40,000 ad in the Times blasting Bruni's expertise and starting a blog to excoriate him: a gift of corned beef and prosciutto from Mario Batali's father, and a letter from a Kobe Club china vendor proffering a $2,500 credit. "I have not paid for a dinner in a restaurant since the ad," Chodorow said.

Labels: Food

Posted by B Feiler at 8:01 AM
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