New Times' Route 9 Review Takes Some Twists and Turns - UPDATED

Yesterday must have been something of a roller coaster for Paola and Jeremy Goldberg, the young proprietors of Route 9, a humble neighborhood restaurant that opened up in Coral Gables almost exactly two months ago. The Goldbergs, who met while at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York (hence the name of the restaurant, for the area's main thoroughfare) woke up to find a fairly glowing, three-star review from Victoria Pesce-Elliott in the Miami Herald (full version now available here). She described Route 9 as "a cozy and endearing spot," and that the Goldbergs' "greatest talent seems to be creating a welcoming environment with good food and drinks at a reasonable price." So far, so good.

Then, the Miami New Times posted its review (yes, I know: you will get a "Page Not Found" message when you click on that link. We'll get to that. Here, try the cached version a revised version now appears on the site with the statement "This story was removed from the Internet overnight while several factual errors were corrected. We apologize for the inconvenience."), which was not nearly so kind. Though New Times' restaurant critic, Lee Klein (?) (just wait), starts off with the "sweet, old-fashioned story" behind Route 9 and its owners, things quickly go downhill from there. The menu "could have been written in the year the Goldbergs graduated from the CIA" - 1991, according to the review. And just about every dish has some flaw: the chicken wings should have been described as spicy, the poblano peppers stuffed with smoked marlin could have used another component, some of the meatballs were uncooked, the tomato soup tasted like Campbell's. The fish tacos were too expensive, the vegetable accompaniments to the entrées ranged from "meh" to "awful," the pasta was too thick. The menu should have had quotes around "pie" for the banana cream pie because of the sloppy presentation.^[1]

No restaurateur likes a negative review. But upon reading it, the Goldbergs thought something wasn't right. Among other things, the facts. You can look at the picture of Jeremy and Paola that accompanies the review and pretty quickly conclude that it's fairly unlikely they graduated from the CIA in 1991. As Goldberg told the Random Pixels blog: "I was 9 years old in 1991."^[2] The menu couldn't put quote marks around "pie" because - well, because the pie isn't even on the printed menu, it's a verbal special.

There was something else too: Jeremy Goldberg had his doubts that Lee Klein had even visited the restaurant. Why? Well, it's a small restaurant (about 40 seats), Jeremy is pretty much always working front of house, and it probably wouldn't be too difficult to recall a repeat customer who had ordered the items mentioned in the review. And, in fact, Goldberg eventually did recall a recent customer who had ordered many of those items, and was, as Jeremy described it to Random Pixels, "a difficult table." But it wasn't Lee Klein. Rather, it was Klime Kovaceski, formerly the chef at Crystal Café in Miami Beach, and recently tapped to be the chef at the about-to-open Trio on the Bay. Goldberg suspected that Kovaceski either wrote the review, or provided the information to Lee Klein from which he wrote it. Sound crazy?

Goldberg called New Times' editor, Chuck Strouse, with his suspicions. (You can get something of a real-time account from Route 9's twitter feed). After calling, he said that Strouse was "investigating major inconsistencies" with the article. A few hours later Goldberg tweeted:

Chuck Strouse, editor New Times is stand up. Killing the New Times story for first time in 13 years based on Lee Klein lack of credibility.

And indeed, shortly thereafter, the review was pulled from the New Times website. Strouse told Eater Miami, "Story had some error. Will be reposted tomorrow." So far that hasn't happened. Strouse also told me last night that he would be commenting on the review that was pulled, and why it was pulled, today. So far that hasn't happened either. (See update below.)

(continued ...)

Meanwhile, a little more color can be had courtesy of Random Pixels, who reported that "A source at New Times told me that Strouse could be heard throughout the entire newsroom Wednesday afternoon yelling at Klein over the phone." Random Pixels also reports that Goldberg went to Kovaceski's new restaurant to confront him and that Kovaceski "confirmed he was the source of much of the information contained in Klein's review."

There are still more details about the connection between Klein and Kovaceski that haven't yet been noted. Only a few days ago, Klein provided a pre-pre-opening "First Look" at Kovaceski's new restaurant on New Times' Short Order blog (the opening-night invitation-only festivities for Trio are this Saturday). Obviously, it's impossible for Klein to have done such a report anonymously. That was preceded by a fairly breathless preview of Trio's opening last month. So it would appear to be beyond doubt that Klein and Kovaceski know each other and have spoken recently.

How well do they know each other? Well, if they did somehow collaborate on the Route 9 review, it apparently would not be the first time they'd worked on a writing project together. Though the web page apparently has recently been changed, a Google search of "Klime Kovaceski Lee Klein" turns up a page for which Google's preview reads:

"Klime Kovaceski and veteran Miami food critic Lee Klein are currently working on a book about Eastern European cooking, an often misunderstood cuisine that ..."

Any reference to Lee Klein has been deleted from the web page, but the cached version shows the original reference to Klein, "BEST RESTAURANT FOOD CRITIC in the USA":

There is a lot to digest here, and I haven't quite finished doing so yet, but I'd like to hear what Chuck Strouse and Lee Klein have to say about it first.

UPDATE:

Around mid-day today, a slightly revised version of the New Times Route 9 review was posted to its website. References to the Goldbergs' "1991" graduation date from CIA and work history were corrected, as was the type of fish used in a particular dish and a description of the menu.

New Times editor Chuck Strouse explained a bit more in a post on Short Order entitled "Route 9 Review: Errors Corrected." Strouse acknowledged that the review contained "several factual errors" and that it was initially removed in response to Goldberg's complaints: "We removed the piece from the Internet, reviewed the claims, corrected the mistakes, and reposted it. We regret the errors and extend a heartfelt apology to Goldberg."

Strouse also acknowledged that the critic, Lee Klein, dined at Route 9 with Klime Kovaceski, a chef at another about-to-open Miami restaurant, but that Kovaceski "paid for his own meal and his opinions were not expressed in any way in the review." He went on to note that Klein and Kovaceski "are old friends and once had planned to write a cookbook together."

Strouse claims, however, that Goldberg's concern that a competitor was involved in the review of his restaurant "doesn't hold water" because Kovaceski's restaurant is located more than 20 minutes away and "hadn't even opened when they dined at the restaurant." He also categorically denies the assertion that Klein did not dine at Route 9, saying that credit card receipts from two different visits affirm Klein's presence.

Credit card receipts previously posted by Route 9 on Twitter (since removed) reflected that Kovaceski dined at Route 9 on March 22. Klein's "First Look" at Kovaceski's new restaurant, Trio on the Bay, was posted on New Times' Short Order blog on March 28. The post indicates that Trio is having an opening party this Saturday, and officially opens for business Tuesday, April 5.

I'm still digesting.

^[1]Interestingly, that's exactly how Victoria Elliott refers to it in her review: "a banana cream 'pie' that's really a charmingly sloppy ramekin of pudding with slivers of ripe fruit and a touch of whipped cream."

^[2]It appears this information may have come from an old version of the restaurant's website posted before the restaurant had opened.