There’s a whole lotta celebrating coming up – Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and Carnaval Brasileiro – all packed into the next eight days. Check our print and online listings, then go out and have some fun! Kudos to Nau’s Enfield Drug (1115 West Lynn) owners Lambert and Laura Labay, who received Mayor Lee Leffingwell‘s first Small Business of the Month award a couple of weeks ago. The soda fountain at Nau’s is one of Austin’s most enduring neighborhood dining destinations – long may it live… The Houston-based megachain Spec’s Wines, Spirits, & Finer Foods (seven area locations) is bringing Houston-based food journalist John DeMers to the Austin airwaves. “In food and drink, as in music and politics, Austin has a lot of fascinating stuff going on. The new Austin show gives me the opportunity to say what I love about Austin every Saturday,” says DeMers. Listen for the Austin version of his Delicious Mischief on Talk Radio 1370AM, Saturdays from 10 to 11am… Local Les Dames d’Escoffier members and marketing mavens Paula Biehler and Cathy Cochran-Lewis have joined forces to form Crave Communications (328-3935, www.craveusa.com) and are launching the new firm with a big party at parkside (301 E. Sixth, 474-9898) this week. Locals will know food publicist Biehler as the longtime owner of Paula Biehler & Associates and Cochran-Lewis as the former director of the Central Market Cooking School, a recent Whole Foods global marketing team member, and the past president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. The multifaceted team will provide nationwide public relations representation to restaurants, chefs, cookbook authors, spas/hotels, cooking schools, and culinary events… For the past few months, both food print media and the blogosphere have been buzzing with discussions about restaurant reviewing, especially whether or not reviewing should be done anonymously and whether or not food bloggers should be held to the same ethical standards as print journalists. Thanks to Chronicle contributor MM Pack, I’ve just read a very coherent and educational essay on the history and future of restaurant reviewing by Robert Sietsema in the Columbia Journalism Review. Read the longtime Village Voice restaurant critic’s articulate evaluation of the issues at www.cjr.org. It’s worthwhile reading for food writers and food bloggers, as well as anyone else affected by restaurant reviews – restaurant owners, chefs, publicists, and diners… Randy Goss, co-owner of the popular County Line chain of barbecue restaurants founded here in 1975, died last week in a single-car accident near his home outside San Antonio. Randy was preceded in death by his brothers Rick and Rocky, who were also involved in starting the restaurants. We offer our sincere condolences to the entire County Line family.
This article appears in February 12 • 2010.