Fake furor ferments

The blogosphere and tweeting community were all a fever last week concerning Wine Spectator’s debacle over Osteria L’Intrepido di Milano, a fake restaurant cooked up by author Robin Goldstein. Goldstein created a fictitious restaurant of that name, supposedly in Milan, Italy.

The name is a play on Goldstein’s restaurant guide series called “Fearless Critic.” The author claims to have submitted the required $250 fee, a cover letter, a copy of the restaurant’s menu, and its wine list to the magazine for assessment.

The restaurant promptly won the magazine’s Award of Excellence, published in the August 2008 issue. What’s even more damaging is that Goldstein chose his reserve, most expensive bottles from a list of wines he culled from the magazine’s lowest-scoring Italian wines from the past few decades, such as Amarone Classico “La Fabriseria” 1998 (the magazine called it “sweet and cloying” and went on to say it “smells like bug spray”). According to Goldstein, he revealed his findings at a meeting of the American Association of Wine Economists in Portland, Ore., two weeks ago.

While it’s alarming to think that a restaurant that doesn’t exist could rate an award from a wine magazine that specializes in such a thing, what’s really alarming is that a restaurant that actually does exist could purport to have a cellar it doesn’t, and possibly win an award for it.

Wine Spectator’s executive editor, Thomas Matthews, quickly responded online with accusations that Goldstein had orchestrated his “scam” to garner publicity for his new book, “The Wine Trials” (Fearless Critic Media, 2008, $14.95), and reminded readers that the Award of Excellence is “the most basic of our three awards.” Matthews went on to state that the restaurant had been called many times to verify information but to no avail. Goldstein went so far as to create a Web site for the restaurant, apparently posted fake comments about it on chowhound.com and gave it an actual mapped address that appeared on Google, all of which were pursued by Wine Spectator.

Other than Goldstein possibly having a little too much time on his hands, what’s really going on here?

“This doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Vajra Stratigos, director of beverage services for Fifth Group. “Applebee’s could probably get that first level award. Getting the Grand Award [the magazine’s highest-level award] — that’s a different story.”

Stratigos has worked for two restaurants that have received the Grand Award, and noted that “follow-up and verification would have been much more excruciatingly thorough for this one.”

How valuable is a Wine Spectator Award? Stratigos said that awards from the magazine offer a “perceived credibility” to a restaurant, but that the actual merit is a “big bunch of marketing horse [manure].”

As one wine enthusiast, commenting as “Rajiv” on Goldstein’s blog put it: “At the end of the day, what have you contributed to the wine world?”

I’m inclined to agree. Scratch the surface of the damaging headlines, and Goldstein and Wine Spectator come up a few bottles short of a cellar.

• Pano’s & Paul’s, the landmark restaurant started by Pano Karatassos and Paul Albrecht back in 1979, will close just after the restaurant celebrates its 30th birthday next February. The Buckhead Life Restaurant Group has confirmed that the restaurant’s lease will not be renewed come April. But founder Karatassos plans to relocate his flagship restaurant to an unnamed Buckhead location, though no specifics have been announced.

• Gateway Development, owner of the Globe, has entered a management contract with Fifth Group restaurants, to be transitioned into a Fifth Grouper soon. “We’ve only been in [the restaurant] for about 2 1/2 weeks,” said Fifth Group owner Robby Kukler, “so we’re just figuring out what’s going on and assessing everything.” Kukler confirmed that the popular Midtown spot in Technology Square will eventually be marketed under the Fifth Group umbrella of restaurants, but at present they have no plans to buy the restaurant outright. As for now, Joshua Perkins remains exec chef.

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