“furiously refreshing [me]…”

October 27th, 2009 by abbe diaz

shrug

HEY I DID TRY TO POST THIS RESPONSE AS A COMMENT DIRECTLY AT EATER BUT THEY HAVE A "CHARACTER CUTOFF" AND AFTER TYPING ALL THIS GODDAMNED RIGMAROLE I DIDN’T WANT TO HAVE TO GO BACK AND SHAVE OFF 403 OF MY CHARACTERS. AND I HATE SENDING E-MAILS CUZ I CAN’T STAND BEING PARAPHRASED.
SIGH.

Aww, I’m flattered, thank you. Technically however, I am not the official spokesperson for Centro Vinoteca, nor am I directly employed within the company. But, as I do consult for them on occasion, I guess I’ll just go ahead and explain as best I can, with the stipulation that none of it is to be construed as an official statement by the company.

1) As for Leah Cohen quitting, this was actually not considered a "problem" as much as a consequence of doing business. People leave. It happens. A chef leaving a restaurant is as much a "problem" as paying the rent and the electric bill.

2) I did tell Centro’s “PR person” she could address Gusto’s "on the market" speculation “off the record only” with Eater, because it was not deemed an important enough issue to warrant the possibility of attracting more attention to the stupid matter. In the exact words told to me, "Who cares? Nobody gives a shit anyway."
Well. As best I know, neither 60 nor 62 Greenwich Ave is "on the market" for sale. I must admit the explanation of the "mortgage holder’s risk assessment to gauge interest, value, and anticipated turnover time" sounds kinda weird to me, but maybe only cuz I never heard of it before.
Alls I can think is: If you REALLY think those buildings are for sale, then go ahead and make an offer and see what happens. Who knows? If you can come up with a really impressive non-refundable deposit fast enough, maybe you CAN buy those buildings after all!

3) As for the "shuttering" of Centro Vinoteca: Well, we did address this ridiculousness once before, with Gusto Ristorante. Here at —> http://pxthis.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=501
If you recall, Gusto was shut down by the DCA (for three days) for putting smoking tables out IN DECEMBER while the sidewalk permit was technically still in the PROCESS of being renewed, because apparently merely setting out TWO tables with TWO chairs (IN DECEMBER) constitutes "an intent to serve."
The DCA instructed Gusto it was NOT ALLOWED to post signage of any kind in explanation to the patrons.
BRILLIANT "punishment," no? No monetary fine imposed, just a slap on the wrist and a timeout to go sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap. Three days of lost sales tax income to the state of NY (not to mention lost income/income-taxes for the staff) and then some (seeing as patrons were not entitled to know when the restaurant would re-open). It’s PURE GENIUS I tell you.

As far as I PERSONALLY can surmise, Centro will re-open tomorrow.

4) As for an "experienced operator" (with no partners or other such investors) having such “problems”: yes, it does indeed get to be a handful for one person running multiple locations at such high volume. Which is why one might need to hire— say, an "expeditor" for example, to handle such bureaucratic tasks like permit renewals and whatnot.

Too bad sometimes some employees such as "expeditors" are fucking dumbasses. Yah, even when they’re paid, believe it or not.

Hope that’s some decent "intel" for you?

Thanks again!
:)

Oh P.S. — That’s actually pxthis.com rather than abbe-diaz.com, but whatever. Thanks anyway.

 

 

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27 Responses to ““furiously refreshing [me]…””

  1. Dick Johnson Says:

    Well, if you were a mortgage holder, and you wanted to assess the risk of issuing a mortgage (especially in a recesssion), and you wanted to see how fast you could sell the building and how much money you’d be offered in case the owner of the building was forced to default on the loan because of lean economic times, HOW WOULD YOU DO IT?

  2. Vanilla Ice Says:

    BEATER JUS’ BE MAD ‘CUZZ HOMEBOY BE GETTIN’ ALL DAT FINE AZZ UP IN DIS PIECE.
    ONE LOVE, BEEYOTCHES.

    WORD.

  3. Jesus Says:

    I always thought I’d turn water into wine and open a bar, but after reading this, I’ll probably just drink all that wine and get wasted.

  4. Captain Kangaroo Says:

    Why would Eater say that it’s a system-wide problem after Mangia just announced that it is expanding, but then not say anything about Mangia? Just to knock something by just writing what’s bad and not the rest of the facts? That’s kind of shady.

  5. Captain Kangaroo Says:

    Hah! LOL @ Vanilla Ice.

  6. Inkslinger Says:

    Yeah, B’eater writes about every single fro-yo shop and hot dog vendor, but they don’t mention a single thing about Mangia, and I know for a fact they got the exact same press release that we printed here and invitations to the private Mangia Tasting. So, all they want to do is intentionally disrespect Sasha while they kiss all the other restaurateur’s asses (even the scumbags), and why? What has he ever done to them? Just because he’s with Abbe? Are they seriously that jealous of Abbe that they would mess with an innocent person’s livelihood?

    That is really fucked up, Eater.

  7. Inkslinger Says:

    By the way, Sasha is one of the nicest people I have ever met.

  8. Inkslinger Says:

    “All is not well in the world of restaurateur Sasha Muniak.”

    Seriously? With absolutely no mention of all that stuff that is well with his world?
    http://www.abbe-diaz.com/2009/10/shout-out-to-our-favorite-1-homeboy/

    But every time Keith McNally or David Chang scratches their balls, for example, we have to hear about it?

    Seriously? Stay classy, Eater.

  9. hmmm Says:

    this is why most of the industry hates eater. they only play up their favorites or people that kiss their ass. everyone else gets deathwatched if they so much as have a slow night. the truth is they have no clue about what really goes on in the industry and wouldn’t last 1 second doing the jobs that we do. and most of their readers are douchebags and liars. yelp is a better food site than eater which is reeally saying alot.

  10. hmmm Says:

    as usual eater doesn’t bother to fact check before writing their b.s.

  11. Dishwasher Says:

    The simple fact is that it’s just silly to make something like a permit violation into a personal attack. The examples that they presented as personal problems are stupid. Add to that the fact that they didn’t bother to mention the Mangia expansion but went ahead and posted this as though it is a system-wide issue is irresponsible and plain cruel. I barely saw the update but of course couldn’t miss the closing announcement with the big salacious headline and big photo. The announcement for the reopening is tiny in comparison and can hardly be seen.

    Agreed it’s reasons like this that Eater is so reviled. The sad part of it is I have heard their so-called faves that always get the kid glove treatment talk shit about them behind their backs, and if they knew who these people are, they would prob actually be surprised.

  12. TIMOTHY Says:

    WAIT A SEC THE PX THIS ABBE DIAZ IS THE SAME ABBY THAT’S SASHA’S WIFE???? OMG I JUST GOT IT. HOLY SHIT I’M SLOW.

  13. Mika Says:

    Well, she is not his wife ! n She wishes but she is the gf ! that gets paid big time !!!!

  14. Dick Johnson Says:

    LOL.

    Aaaaand here come the Beater wackjobs. This is awesome.

    Please, Mika, do tell us more! Wait, let me get some popcorn first.

  15. Dick Johnson Says:

    http://ny.eater.com/archives/2009/10/centro_update.php

    Wait, Mika, you missed a spot! Tell us more about the $3M crib!

  16. abbe Says:

    hi Timothy!

    :)

  17. TIMOTHY Says:

    LOL MEOW!!! I DON’T SEE SASHA AND ABBE THAT OFTEN BUT I DEFINATELY REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I MET ABBY THAT SASHA SAID HAVE YOU MET MY WIFE ABBE? I ALSO COULD’NT HELP BUT NOTICE THE BIG SPARKLERS ON HER LEFT RING FINGER BECAUSE I’M SHALLOW LIKE THAT.

  18. TIMOTHY Says:

    MIKA I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY BUT MAYBE YOU JUST WERE NOT INVITED TO THE WEDDING????? DO YOU HAVE A THING FOR SASHA??? YOU SOUND LIKE MY PSYCHO STALKER EX-BOYFRIEND FROM 5 YEARS AGO.

  19. TIMOTHY Says:

    HI ABBE! FROM NOW ON I’M GOING TO CALL YOU ABBY WITH AN E. I HAVE BEEN A FAN OF PX SINCE A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE TOLD ME ABOUT IT A LONG TIME AGO. HE ALSO HAS RESTAURANTS. I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SO STUPID I NEVER PUT IT TOGETHER. GIVE SAHSA A KISS FOR ME!!! XXX

  20. Inkslinger Says:

    @Timothy: LOL I must be shallow, too! :D

  21. MILFweed Says:

    http://ny.eater.com/archives/2009/10/centro_update.php
    The most ridiculous thing about this is that Abbe would never wear Prada. Dior/McQueen/Alaia maybe but definitely not Prada.

  22. jj Says:

    Good to see shillers fighting the anti-shillers

    Objectivity be damned !!!

  23. Dick Johnson Says:

    “Objectivity be damned” is Eater’s motto.

    Yeah, it’s great to see the truthful fighting the B.S.

  24. fuck eater Says:

    hey jj, suck a dick, dipshit.
    look around you moron. there are no ads here which means px can do whatever the fuck it wants/ it doesn’t have to be objective. the fact is that everyone in the industry reads this site bc it’s the only one that talks the real deal and doesn’t suck ass. it’s the on;y one that has real info that we want to read. go back to eater where you came from, you piece of shit “shiller”. have fun reading all about pinkberry and shake shack, douchebag. see you outside in line at magnolia when i walk by and have my dog piss on ur leg, loser.

  25. fuck eater Says:

    the fact is every other blogger dipshit wishes they were half as cool as this website.

  26. Inkslinger Says:

    Thanks for your support, “Fuck Eater” :D

    Just wanted to add that this is the only site that is BY the high-end NYC industry FOR the high-end NYC industry. Everything that is written here implies that we assume you are ALREADY in the know. If you are a member of the NYC’s fine dining industry (especially downtown) then it is assumed you already know the places and people we are talking about, or that you ALREADY ‘get’ it. That is how we differ greatly from a site like Beater or Grub St, e.g.

    Everything we do here is out of passion for our little segment of the profession (and our friends in/around it), and we don’t write about every little thing that lands in our email inbox. If we did, that would detract from what makes us different and interesting to people like us, that are light years ahead in knowledge over a typical Beater/Grub reader.

    Thanks again! :D

  27. Inkslinger Says:

    Also, it’s pretty obvious that JJ doesn’t even know what “shill” means. A shill would be someone that posts under an assumed alias for example, to falsely write favorable reviews about their own business, underthe guise of being objective.

    Abbe answering a question that was asked of her can hardly be called a shill. Especially since all the information in this blog post is true and can easily be confirmed by fact-checking. Abbe’s relationship to the subject also appears here right in the comments.

    Eater called Centro’s closing a ‘system-wide’ problem, which was obviously not true since Centro re-opened 3 days later, as was reported here. If you want to know what a ‘shill’ is, you don’t have to look any further than Eater’s constant coverage of David Chang, Keith McNally and Shake Shack, e.g.
    Eater writing about a Shake Shack that hasn’t even opened yet in Miami is a shill e.g., when they refuse to acknowledge a Mangia Organics that opened on 39th St. From the google searches on Mangia Organics that end up at this site, we know that it is info that is desirable to people (especially in the fashion industry). But Eater, despite doing everything in their power to FALSELY write about Mangia/Sasha, has never even mentioned it.

    Why is that? Plain and simple, it’s because Eater is a ‘SHILLER’ that poses as an objective food site, and takes ad dollars from unsuspecting companies that don’t even have a clue what they do, and only looks at the number of page views.

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