Jay Rayner Paints the New York Restaurant World in a Few Broad StrokesThe Man Who Ate the World, British restaurant critic Jay Rayner’s tour of the planet’s great restaurant cities will be coming out soon, as Gawker noted yesterday. Its piece lingered over Super Mario’s latest profanity-laced anti-blogger tirade, which was almost as enjoyable as his last one. But having read the New York chapter, we were hit by how much other good stuff was in it.
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Alan Richman Confirmed Out at Bloomberg
Alan Richman is out at Bloomberg, reports say. A tipster reported as much to Gawker over the weekend, and Eater currently is citing “reliable info” that the critic left on his own, rather than getting fired. Our own source on the subject, a figure close to the center of the situation, confirms for us that Richman is no longer reviewing for Bloomberg. As much as we admire Richman’s work, we weren’t entirely surprised: Richman had evidenced tablecloth fatigue over the last few years, and had been at the reviewing grind much longer than any of his current peers. According to Eater, Peter Eliot will replace Richman in the weeks before a permanent replacement is named. More on the story (and our source says there is more to the story) as we hear it.
EaterWire AM Edition: Alan Richman Out at Bloomberg [Eater]
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Gawker Lays Hate on Restaurant Girl Danyelle FreemanNow that Bruni Digest author Julia Langbein is blogging for Gourmet, you don’t hear many jabs at Frank’s purple prose anymore. Enter Gawker, which yesterday took aim at a much fresher target in not one but three posts skewering Danyelle Freeman, a.k.a. “Restaurant Hurl.” Somehow we don’t think Gawker’s back-to-back parody reviews — which focused on a sandwich we eat about three times a week, Despaña’s El Quixote — will cause Freeman’s future dispatches to be any less florid and torrid.
Beef
Neroni Is Indeed Free — for a Few Days, AnywayJason Neroni says he’s innocent of the charges leveled at him by the owner of Porchetta, Marco Rivero — he accused the Desperate Chef of misappropriation of funds and said there was a warrant out for his arrest — and earlier today Gawker confirmed that no such warrant exists. Here’s the latest: “I just came back from the police,” Rivero tells us, “and they said it takes a few days before the warrant can go into effect. The detectives want to check into something with both banks … but I don’t want to say too much.” We’ll see if the police report actually surfaces. We hope Neroni is planning his defense and not any more press releases. Rivero sounds like he means business.
Jason Neroni Considering Action Against Former Employer [Gawker]
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Food Fight at JoviaJovia has found itself in the news quite a bit in recent months, from being listed on Eater’s Deathwatch to our report on them selling their chandeliers. But a Gawker post detailing the very, very bad behavior of the restaurant’s investors has to be the worst report yet. It’s been high times for the investors, though, Bear Stearns boors who in recent weeks have had a fruit fight at the bar, thrown glasses at each other, and even jumped onto the counter to yell, “Where are we going now? To find some c—s?” Forget the light fixtures. Get rid of the investors!
Dispatch From the Service Trade: By Jovia! [Gawker]