Anyone who follows the New York restaurant scene will be aware of the almighty spat that has erupted between New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni and restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow, who is famous for Asia de Cuba and China Grill.
What makes this spat really interesting for us in the UK is that Jeffrey Chodorow is about to launch a new restaurant in London called Suka, which replaces Alain Ducasse's Spoon at the Sanderson hotel on 14 March.
But while Jeffrey has about 26 restaurants in the US,, his latest offering in New York, the Kobe Club, got a real panning from Frank Bruni about two weeks ago.
In his review Bruni was bruising about Chodorow's latest offering giving it zero stars and pointing out Chodorow's spectacular recent failures with Mix in New York and Rocco's, or its successor Brasserio Caviar & Banana.
Unsurprisingly, it's the work of the restaurateur and gimmick maestro Jeffrey Chodorow, who scored big in years past with China Grill and Asia de Cuba but hasn't had as much local success of late.Kobe Club occupies the Midtown space once inhabited by Mix in New York, Mr. Chodorow's cheeky, ill-fated collaboration with the French chef Alain Ducasse.
Mix wasn't even Mr. Chodorow's flashiest recent failure. Who can forget Rocco's on 22nd, scene of "The Restaurant," where Mama's meatballs were sauced with acrimony and eventual litigation? Or its short-lived successor in that location, Brasserio Caviar & Banana?
Brasserio Caviar & Banana -- the name really does bear repeating -- tried a grill-from-Ipanema approach and foreshadowed Mr. Chodorow's fascination with sharp objects. Meats came on disturbingly, dangerously long skewers.
But in an amazing twist Jeffrey Chodorow has hit back against Bruni by taking out a full page ad in the New York Times dining section addressed to its new editor Pete Wells.
In a hugely long diatribe, Chodorow bangs on about how Bruni is out to get him and ends with this letter with this missive.
In the interest of fairness, I am introducing my personal blog, which will be a compilation of my food-related experiences and musings and a special section entitled Following Frank and After Adam, in which I will make a follow-up visit to the restaurants they write about for the purpose of reviewing their reviews. My blog will appear at www.chinagrillmgt.com/blog/. My friends in the restaurant business have warned me that there will be further retaliation against me for speaking up. So be it.
So New York blogs Gawker, Eater have followed the story's developments including Bruni's latest riposte as well.
I wonder what Jeffrey has in store for us at the Suka, his previous restaurants in the US have been likened by some as TGI Fridays for those with cash, so it's an intriguing prospect and I guess we can look forward to reading all about it on his blog!