Beef

Does Joe Dobias Want to Inflict Bodily Harm on Grub Street?

Photo: Courtesy of Joe Doe

We’re starting to worry just a little bit about Joe Dobias, the “aggressive American” chef who lashed out at “shithead bloggers” after a couple of them gave him less than favorable reviews. Back then, he explained to us why he banned Eater from his eponymous restaurant: “Instead of helping the people they should be helping (like you guys do at New York Magazine), Eater just likes to take people down.” But now we, too, are in Joe Doe’s crosshairs, as evidenced by multiple tweets mentioning Adam Platt and your humble narrator, Grub Street editor Daniel Maurer. Here’s the most troubling of them, posted on Friday and now deleted: “I was riding my bike and was hoping to see danny, just so I could run his ass down! No such luck.”

Okay, we knew Joe Doe didn’t like us anymore when he badmouthed us to a friend of ours at his restaurant (ah, the charm of the open kitchen!), and when he started replacing his usual tweets of “F Eater” with “F D.M.” and “F Danny.” We had to wonder what we did to become a bogeyman — after all, we like what Joe Doe does: We’ve shared news of his preopening menu, opening menu, cocktail menu, prix fixe menu, delivery menu, brunch menu, happy-hour menu, and Sunday-supper menu. Heck, we even praised its bacon-and-liver sandwich and his biscuits and gravy!

Sure, we’ve had some fun with the man’s media persona: The headline “Joe Doe Hits Television, Somehow Isn’t Famous Yet” may have been a little cheeky, but keep in mind it refers to someone who once wrote, “I assure you you will make me famous and for that I love you little bloggers sticking together.” So what’s up with tweets like “The rise continues thru the winter! F Danny!” And “Phil from Daddy-O in tonite! Great tuesday with another great biz owner for the gravy! F danny!” And “I hate when people say chief, guy, or hey u!? F danny.” And “JoeDoe is killing it! Sorry to those who wanted something different? Barnacles suck! Danny sucks!”

Look, mantras are deeply personal things — far be it from us to deprive a hardworking chef of saying “F Danny” instead of “ohm” if that’s what helps him get through a long day. But do we really deserve to be run down by a bicycle? (At least we hope Joe Doe rides a bicycle — getting hit by a Harley would definitely put our blogging arm in a sling.) Obviously Joe Doe is feeling a little stressed, so to ensure he makes it through the Valentine’s Day crush sane (Joe Doe has little patience for, say, the types who come to his restaurant just because they saw him on Chopped), we’d like to offer him a massage. That’s right — there are a few spots where we like to pamper ourselves after a hard day at our own thankless job (what, you thought being a barnacle was easy?). Sure, they’re in Chinatown basements, but the zither music is relaxing enough. First twenty minutes are on us!

Chef Joe Doe [Twitter]

Does Joe Dobias Want to Inflict Bodily Harm on Grub Street?