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The Leslie Brenner vs. Dallas Restaurateurs Battle Makes The Washington Post

WaPo food writer Tim Carman tackles the Brenner vs. Dallas restaurateurs debacle. (Also: Brenner feels bad about the great BarbecueGate incident of 2010.)

The Dallas restaurant community continues to make national headlines, but perhaps not for the reasons most would prefer: Yesterday The Washington Post weighed in on the ongoing Leslie Brenner vs. John Tesar/Proof + Pantry/etc. saga with a lengthy treatise from food writer Tim Carman (who, as he discloses in the article, just so happened to be "a finalist" for Brenner's Dallas Morning News gig).

Much of the information contained in Carman's piece won't be news to locals who've been eagerly (or not-so-eagerly) following the never-ending Brenner saga, but there are some choice tidbits worth directing your attention to:

  • The anti-Brenner, star system-hating band of restaurateurs that includes Proof + Pantry, John Tesar, and Shannon Wynne is taking their campaign quite seriously: They "plan to place stickers in the window and print new menus with the logo 'DMN Doesn’t Pay Here.'"
  • Expect more chefs/restaurateurs to jump on the anti-DMN bandwagon: Carman quotes Proof + Pantry owner Sal Jafar II as saying some “additional big names in the city” and some “up-and-comers” will be joining in the aforementioned sticker/menu campaign.
  • When asked about the infamous "BarbecueGate" debacle in which Brenner was accused of plagiarizing Daniel Vaughn's best barbecue list for D, the critic expressed what seems to be some remorse: "Brenner now wishes she had acknowledged Vaughn’s legwork in sussing out those off-the-beaten-path joints," writes Carman, and quotes her as saying "If I could do it all over again, yeah, I would have."
  • Brenner was approached to be involved in Tesar's currently-in-the-works reality TV deal, but tragically, the critic "has turned down Tesar’s offer." Womp womp.

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