Bruni Goes Out With The Redhead

Tomorrow Frank Bruni will end his tenure as The New York Times food critic with a review of East Village soul food hotspot The Redhead.   Although the Redhead might seem like an odd review to go out on given that it is basically a small one year old bar-cum-restaurant with sensational, moderately priced southern food, I think that Bruni has very specific designs for this review.  [bxA] Despite its meager trapping, The Redhead is helmed by former chefs from Eleven Madison Park, which Bruni crowned the sixth four star restaurant in New York last week.  More importantly though, the success story of this scrappy upstart is one that I think Bruni will take to heart to express how very much the New York dining world has changed in the five years since he began as food critic for the Times.  Bruni was the critic during a transitional period of food journalism, a time when food bloggers started to not only post reviews of restaurants faster than traditional media outlets, but with more photos and looser, casual style.  Bruni met and embraced this change head on by not only taking to the blogs himself, but by being the warm, entertaining critic whose style and taste spoke to the Manhattan elite as well as those with slimmer pocketbooks and shorter attention spans.   Five years ago, the Jeffery Chodorows of the world were opening up pretentious coliseum-sized mega restaurants to the delight of many diners.  Now a days, some of the most sought after tables in New York are tiny downtown spots with young, ambitious chefs severing inventive, satisfying, locally sourced food.   The Redhead fits this description to a tee. Bruni was also one of the first people to file in on the Redhead back in December with a round up of affordable dinners for two, and strangely enough, Bruni's replacement, Sam Sifton was spotted eating there last week.  Could we expect the Siftonator to make an appearance in the review?

I had an opportunity to dine at The Redhead back in January -- for my birthday-- and while the food was excellent, the restaurant is dark, cramped, and very noisy. I think we can expect a very positive one star from Bruni as his swan song to the Dining Section of The Times. 

Update: The Redhead gets the one.  It's an optimistic review, with much props paid to Meg Grace and Co.'s pull-yourself-up-by-the-boot-straps attitude and satisfying soul food. Congrats to Team Redhead.  Bruni has left the building!