A BONE TO PICK...FOOD & NEWSPAPERS

So you've heard it before, The New York Observer only has a circulation of about 50,000, but it's a "small but dedicated readership." New York's who's who reads it, right? It was even assigned reading at Georgetown in my "New York Stories" class (which was so popular that only seniors were allowed to take it) and I followed it for several weeks, chuckling at advertisements for mid-afternoon hotel-room specials for pret-a-toucher affairs. It's the pink paper on the waiting room coffee tables of plastic surgeons' offices, read by real estate barons and would be's, and in the newspaper racks in the spas, not to mention being on the paper-rotation of most media industry folk-- it's the launch-pad for young journalists that have that je ne sais pas, oops, sorry, I meant that cliched, er, trademarked snarky voice.

So if it's read by such a who's who, why doesn't it have a regular review. Aren't these readers the clientele that can afford to eat in the places that would be reviewed? Is Moira Hodgson not on staff? Why are the reviews so inconsistently printed? Am I missing something? You'd think they'd just make it a weekly review and try to make it a destination read already! Kitchen Toro's Wednesday Washdown's category, "Out of the Game," was created just for the Observer!

A few days ago, The Observer was bought by 25 year-old Jared Kushner. The Times reported that Kushner, "pledged to stay out of the editorial process and focus instead on improving the paper’s bottom line," so maybe my pet peeve about the review isn't at the top of his agenda but hey, Jared, it couldn't hurt, it is the age of the chef afterall.

While I'm on the subject of food and newspapers, take a look at The New York Sun. They have a consistently good group of articles. I remember hearing some newsroom chuckles about the fledgling paper in an area not far from the third-floor entrance when it started up a few years ago but it's still around and I find it's food section pretty damn good every week.