dropkickjeffy

Hey, People Interested in Food. Thought you might like this: It's "The Lonely Critic", a 3 minute song/video about the life of a dining critic - accompanies my column in Chicago magazine. http://chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May...p-to-the-Plate/ Enjoy, spread it around, call me a hack, whatever. Best, Jeff Ruby Deputy dining editor Chicago magazine

As one of the writers of the Dish column, I was obviously interested in this thread. I normally don't reply here, though I am always interested in what you folks are thinking - about restaurants and media coverage of them. I should say: I consistently respect the opinions that I find on these message boards. I am curious what you believe the Dish column "purports to aspire" to. Yes, one of our goals is to provide information about restaurants - but the truth is, it is a gossip column. We are dining writers, and when we feel it's necessary, we pass judgment on restaurants. Even though it’s still new, we felt it necessary to pass judgment on Quince. In the press materials, a big deal was made of the fact that the restaurant was in the old Trio space – the Homestead people obviously were playing up the familiar address. Like it or not, people want to know how it compares to the space’s previous incarnations. Granted, it’s a tough spot for the Quince people, but that’s just a fact of life. If the item seemed overly negative, it’s probably because, based on the people involved, we had (and still have) such high hopes for the restaurant. One other thing: We used our column as the forum for this because it certainly wouldn’t have been fair to rate a new restaurant in the magazine that quickly. We have a strict policy about that. Hope this doesn't sour you on the Dish column completely. Jeff

Starting this Thursday night and continuing all summer. It's a series of one-hour shows, each focusing with laser-sharp precision on one food: burgers, chocolate, pizza, etc. I got interviewed for the pizza show, and after three and half hours of dutifully answering questions on the minutiae of the subject, it finally dawned on me that the producers were taking this way more seriously than I was. I suspect the episodes will be pretty good, but I base that on nothing other than the singlemindedness of the man who interviewed me. And the fact that it's the History Channel. www.historychannel.com/americaneats/video.html Jeff

Thanks for the kind words. I also wish that the story was online. Chicagomag.com has been horribly neglected over the years, but the powers-that-be are in the process up finally updating it, and - hopefully - getting more archived stories on there. Ron, to answer your question: There aren't any plans to do similar stories in the (near) future: The last time I was assigned a travel piece was 1998. Chicago magazine just never got much response to the regular travel pieces, so now they're few and far between - and always high-concept stuff. God forbid they should just send me to Aruba or something.

Ah, so this is the infamous Jeff Ruby -- of Chicago. I loved the article in Chicago Mag. There were parts that tickled me so that I had tears in my eyes. Ron, if you make it to Cincy, let me know know first. Drew V can tell you why by PM, please. Oh, and Jeff, now Chef de Cavel knows what you did with the leftovers. ←

I, too, had the pleasure of dining at Jean-Robert recently - and loved my meal. In many ways, it was more satisfying than a recent experience I had at Everest. While not nearly as detailed as Vogelap's phenomenal review above, I wrote about my Jean-Robert meal in the June issue of Chicago magazine, as part of a feature on Midwestern road trips (page 75). Trouble was, by the time I got to Jean-Robert, I had eaten out at 7 meals in a row all the way from Chicago to Cincinnati - and ended up with a serious amount of leftovers from Jean-Robert. When I asked for a doggy bag, like I always do, my wife said, "What are you going to do with leftovers? We don't have a fridge in the hotel, and we're booked for breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow." We decided that the first homeless person we saw on the walk back to the hotel would become the recipient of rock shrimp ravioli with spinach puree and mushrooms, but as it turns out, we didn't see any homeless people. We ended up leaving the leftovers on the ground next to a mailbox on 5th Street and feeling vaguely creepy about it.

Your point is a good one. But I don't think eGullet (nor Dish, nor Chicago magazine) has the power to doom any restaurant any more than we have the ability to make it a success. I have praised numerous restaurants in print and online over the years only to see them go out of business for whatever reasons. On the flipside, I have ripped plenty of popular restaurants that damn well deserved it, only to see them thriving like they always did. BTW: I like all of the restaurants mentioned on this thread, and would be saddened to see any of them close. That doesn't mean it's not interesting to speculate on this stuff. Besides, what kind of sheep would avoid a restaurant just because someone posted a message predicting (or perhaps hoping for) its demise? I sure wouldn't.

I am Chicago magazine Boy, hear me roar. I'm the quintessential lurker - been watching eGullet creepily from the shadows for awhile now. (No wonder girls stayed away from me in high school.) Have to tell you, I really enjoy this board a lot. You're all so much more open and smart and *nice* than people on the movie message boards I used to go on, which always ended up with people calling each other racists and jerks. Jeff Ruby Chicago magazine