DREGS REPORT 2009®

Turning Tables? Real restaurant wins ficticious Spectator wine list award

Wed April 1 2009 2:44:00 ET

The wine world shook with laughter in 2008 when Osteria L’Intrepido, a fictitious restaurant in Italy, earned an “Award of Excellence” in Wine Spectator’s Annual Dining Issue. The revelation that the magazine had been punked became ribald fodder for bloggers, and rippled into the mainstream media as well.

Now, Wine Spectator finds itself in a pickle of a different sort: world-renowned Manhattan restaurant Daniel has announced that it is rejecting the magazine’s “Award of Allegiance.” This may prove tricky, as Wine Spectator denies ever bestowing it in the first place.

Owner and Executive Chef Daniel Boulud, sweating over a hot stove, took a moment away from his béchamel to speak to Dregs Report when we came calling. He promptly marched us out to the lobby and pointed a buttery finger to a rather large plaque—4 feet by 6 feet—which had just been removed from the wall. “Look there,” he said. “It reads, ‘To Restaurant Daniel, for years of uninterrupted financial support of our lucrative, bloated wine-list awards program.’ I need this plaque like I need e coli.”

Asked when exactly his restaurant received the plaque, Mr. Boulud said he did not know. “We get so many,” he shrugged, “and Wine Spectator has so many different names for their awards... Best of Excellence This, Grand Whatever Award of That... I don’t know how long the plaque was up, but our graphic designer spotted it here the other day. She practically cried because it is just dérriere-ugly.”

Meanwhile, back at Wine Spectator’s Park Avenue offices, editor Tom Matthews was quick to reject Daniel Boulud’s rejection, saying, “We have no such award. Allegiance is something we expect, not something we reward. Apparently Daniel has fallen prey to an elaborate hoax by an unscrupulous prankster. Most importantly, this scam does not tarnish the legitimate investments made in our real awards by thousands of restaurants who have forked over $250 checks and their boring wine lists to receive our rubber stamp of approval.”

In an related incident, Wine Enthusiast editor and publisher Adam Strum, stated that in case anyone asks, his magazine charges less than Wine Spectator does for its awards.

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