Editor's note: Just like in cinema, the written word occasionally hits the proverbial cutting room floor as well. And while we were very proud of this month's "Best Burgers" issue, well, we just couldn't find the proper spot for the following blurb from SLM's Dave Lowry.
Famous New York Times restaurant critic and longtime editor of the old Gourmet Magazine, Ruth Reichl has reached that level of fame where she no longer really has to make sense.
It’s a rarified position, when you can just burble out off the wall, stream-of-consciousness-type stuff and there’s an audience thinking it’s lovely and profound. Think Depak Chopra. The Grateful Dead. Michiko Kakutani.
Ms. Reichl, who once wrote actual books about real things like cooking and restaurants has, of late, taken to communicating in haiku-esque, stream of consciousness Tweets. A couple of notable postings:
“Cool. Gray. Damp. The cats stalk angrily inside. Steaming tea. Bright lemon tart: slice of sunshine on a plate. Happier.”
And
“6 a.m. Light from McDonald’s splashes across 125th Street. Hooded men hunch over cardboard coffee. Modern nighthawks. Head to the airport.”
We envy this sort of fame. We respect Ms. Reichl’s considerable accomplishments, too. And recognize we’ll probably never match up and it’s important to be gracious about that. But then…
Well, let’s just say that you, as a restaurant critic of far more modest success, find yourself a) in Cleveland, and b) looking for a decent, even good burger and so you stop by the Five Guys Burgers there in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, a swift 21 miles from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (home for any number of those who: see above, reach levels of celebrity for spouting meaningless gibberish). Let’s say you order and while waiting, make a visit to the facilities and, standing there—apologies ladies, but stay with us—you are staring right at your review of the joint.
Has that ever happened to you, Ms. Reichl? No, we think not.
