An extra dollop of disclosure and Chicago’s first couple of cuisine might have escaped the sticking they just got from Newsweek.
It used to be the Kelsons guarded the gates of culinary quality at the city magazine. Allen Kelson, come to think of it, did a lot more than that. He was editor in chief, then publisher, always chief food critic (nom de plate Archy), and he and Carla pasted up the magazine at home. (Carla formally joined Chicago as dining editor in the mid-80s.) But a few years ago new owners brought in Dennis Ray Wheaton as chief dining critic and sent Allen Kelson out into the world to make a living at whatever he knew best. He knew eating out.
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Here’s what the November Chicago could and should have said about its “Critics’ choice . . . our annual roundup of Chicago’s 25 most noteworthy restaurants”: “Allen Kelson, husband of Chicago dining editor Carla Kelson, is or was recently a paid consultant to Blackhawk Lodge, Bistro 110, Carlucci, Gordon, Cafe Provencal, and the Ritz-Carlton dining room.” And with the magazine’s conscience as its guide, it should have gone on to say: “Carla Kelson had limited responsibility for our choice of restaurants, and her husband’s business relationships with some of them did not enter into Chicago’s considerations.”
Allen Kelson pointed out that the Newsweek piece would be no less accurate if Le Francais were replaced by Seasons and “has never hired” by “hired.” “A lot of bullshit,” he said. Springen called every top-25 restaurateur, but in the way of reporters she was after the story she was after, and that rubbed some owners the wrong way. Jimmy Rohr of Jimmy’s Place told us, “She said, ‘I’m trying to verify you’re a winner of Chicago’s critics’ choice.’ I said, ‘Yes, I’m proud to say I am.’ She said, ‘Have you or do you now employ Allen Kelson as a restaurant consultant?’ I said, ‘I certainly have not. I have no restaurant consultant of any kind. I don’t like what you’re implying.’ She said, ‘We’re checking. We’re thinking of doing a story on it.’ I said, ‘Well, Chicago magazine is very important to me. Newsweek isn’t important at all.’”
But this was Le Francais, for God’s sake, under plucky new owners, Roland and Mary Beth Liccioni. So Spiselman and Novick made visits too, then Carla Kelson herself, and everyone agreed to leave it out. When the issue appeared, Carla and Mary Beth spent 45 minutes on the phone going over the critics’ notes. “I told her to please get back to me as soon as they felt things are under control and they’ve addressed the problems,” Carla said. “I’ll put her on a priority assignment as soon as she tells me the restaurant is functioning where it should be.”
Nevertheless, Levy’s Blackhawk Lodge and Bistro 110 are Kelson clients. The Blackhawk is the critics’ choice skeptics are quickest to point to. The anonymous Kelson basher mentioned above called it a “fucking stiff.”
