Rick Rocks the Recession
It’s been three months since Foobooz last mentioned our endless and unconditional love for the best food writer in town, Rick Nichols.
Since the boss is on yet another of his glamorous trips abroad, the Advisory Panel is manning the Foobooz ship for a few days, which means it’s going to be ALL RICK, ALL THE TIME! Squeal!!! Eeeek! Swoon!
We jest, but can you deny the deft and mighty pen of the master? In today’s Inky, Rick meditates on how the recession is affecting local restaurants from the grand dames (burgers at Le Bec) to the lowly “red gravy joint” on Passyunk Ave. (free jug wine), but it’s here that the Nicholsian touch is most evident:
The gossip attending the bumper crop of new steak houses grows thick with gleeful schadenfreude: Did you hear about the steak-house opening that had to be catered because its ovens were on the fritz? About the steak house that’s luring off-duty strippers to happy hour with free drinks and meals? The steak house that can’t make proper steak tartare?
Wowzers. Do you see how he managed to work that gleeful gossip (and strippers!) right in there without saying who each one was? Masterful.
On the Side: Mon dieu! A burger and fries at Le Bec [The Inquirer]
