Empire Kitchen & Cocktails

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https://www.freep.com/story/entertai...ils/769567002/

I think that this restaurant review of Empire Kitchen is highly troubling on at least a couple of levels.

First, it’s just disappointing that this review comes from the Freep’s reviewer, Mark Kurlyandchik, who is one of the best journalists they’ve hired in the past few years. His sharp, creative and insightful reporting on the region’s burgeoning food scene shines in comparison with most other local food writers’ by-the-numbers reviews.

Second, why savage a restaurant that is doing nothing but competently, if perhaps uninspiringly, executing a theme that it is being completely honest about? Kurlyandchik found some dishes disappointing but he never claimed that the kitchen produced routinely awful food. He didn’t claim that it was cynically overcharging its patrons. Rather, a close read of the article discloses that Kurlyandchik seems to be mightily offended at some sort of inauthenticity that he perceives has descended upon Midtown. So okay. Write about that. Don’t put the hard work and savings of small business-people at risk simply because you think that they should have attempted a restaurant theme that wasn’t so “safe.” What kind of hubris is that? Amazingly, the Freep website front page headline writer doubles down by cravenly generating clicks with the statement that the restaurant should be “avoided.” The whole article is really unfair. It draws into question Freep editorial oversight and the writer’s ethics. I hope Empire Kitchen isn’t crippled by this article. I haven’t been there but I’m going to go now.