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

"Pancetta Isn't Smoky"
Monday, March 26, 2007

Food fights aren't just for the NYT critics anymore. A week after Frank Bruni found himself in a showdown with an angry restaurateur over a bad review, the Washingtonian critic finds himself in the same place.

Bad reviews are an occupational hazard of the restaurant business, and most chefs just bellyache or cry in their soup. Not award-winning Roberto Donna, who's started a high-profile food fight with Washingtonian magazine dining editor Todd Kliman. Donna is so upset about the review in this month's issue that he's starting a blog to critique local restaurant critics. "If you want to write a bad review, that's fine," he told us. "But write it with the truth."

Donna's Bebo Trattoria in Arlington was roasted by Kliman, who compared it to the Italian chef's famed Galileo restaurant: "The same self-satisfaction. The same arrogance. The same carelessness." The decor? "All the drama and warmth of Dulles Airport." The service? "Gray and joyless."

But what infuriates Donna are what he's said are glaring factual mistakes about his finances and the food: "It's full of lies." It was his corporation, not himself, that declared bankruptcy and the majority of the $2.5 million debt has already been paid -- all a matter of public record, he said. He also claims Kliman got food preparation wrong (branzino was grilled, not roasted; pancetta isn't smoky).

Now Donna is rounding up his fellow chefs for a blog on inaccuracies in local food reviews -- much like New York's Kobe Club owner Jeffrey Chodorow, who has vowed to start blogging about New York Times food critic Frank Bruni's reviews. Donna's unnamed blog is slated to begin next month, and he's printing up thousands of bumper stickers for his customers and fellow chefs: "Don't Believe the Washingtonian."

When I was growing and someone in my family went on a tirade about something nobody else got an exercised about, we all said, curtly, "Write a letter." Looks like that line would now be replaced with, "Start a blog."

Labels: Food

Posted by B Feiler at 8:00 AM
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