WHAT DOES FRANK BRUNI LOOK LIKE??

I'm sure you've all wondered at some point what restaurant reviewers look like. Maybe not so much cause it would change your perception of the reviews they write, but more because you wonder if you'll ever spot them while dining at some restaurant. At any rate, I do wonder what Frank Bruni looks like. But my question will be answered soon, when Jeffrey Chodorow (you may remember him as owner of the ill fated Roccos on the TV show, The Restaurant) publishes Frank's pic on his new blog. (A search on Google images failed to produce any satisfactory results).

What the hell am I talking about? Well, if you stay tuned to the NY restaurant gossip scene (via blogs such as Eater and Grub Street. My God what did we do before blogs?) you would certainly have heard of the feud that has exploded between Bruni and Chodorow. Basically Frank Bruni wrote a scathing review of Chodorow's new steak restaurant (which sounds like a ridiculous concept) and gave it zero stars. Chodorow reacted by taking out a full page ad in the NYTimes dining section refuting the ad and pointing out why Bruni is unqualified to be a restaurant critic. There's a particularly good summary of it all here. Why is this amusing to me? Because I find it hilarious that two pompous, arrogant men are duking it out in the media and all over the blogosphere. Chowdorow has been the main agressor. He's started his own blog where he vows to follow Bruni around and give his own review of a restaurant after Bruni has reviewed it. And there are rumors that he's banned Bruni from all his restaurants, promising the first employee to spot Bruni a 2 person vacation to the Bahamas. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

Ok, enough of that. You can read about it on your own. On a sadder note, I'm always surprised at how sad it makes me when I've heard that certain businesses have closed. Maybe it's because now that I own my own business, I know how hard it is. But I also understand why a business would close. For example, I was truly heart broken when I found out that Petit 4 in Philadelphia had closed last summer. It was the place where I started in this biz. And while reading Eater, I discovered that two restaurants that I'd visited in NY have now closed. The first was Honmura An, a well known and totally successful resturant. Ruth Reichl gave them 3 stars. But the owner just wanted to return to Japan to run his family's restaurants there. A closing that touched me more was that of the Wild Lily Tea Room. This was such a beautiful, lovely Japanese tea house. When you went in, it was like you'd left the craziness of NY and entertained a quiet, serene space. They even had a mini koi pond inside. After 6 years, the business closed recently. And even though I hadn't been there in years, just knowing that it's not there makes me kinda sad.

Perhaps it's being comfortable and not wanting change. The presence of these places created a feeling of familiarity and their loss reminds me of how quickly things change. I've thought about the what if's of closing my own shop. To be honest, I wouldn't be very sad about it. I think I've gained so much out of having my store. The things I've learned, the friends I've made, the places I've visited. To be honest, I'm still quite young and could really do anything and I'm excited about all the possbilities. The almost two years of struggle have been worth it, just because this was how I met Leah and Tom. I love my industry and I have no plans on leaving it. So when I think about closing my store, the things the makes me saddest is thinking about my customers. I think about the loss that they'll feel if my store closes, because they've lost something comfortable and familiar. And where will they go to get there chocolate? I guess they'll just have to acknowledge it and move on, just like I've done.