The Top Ten Eater Comments on The Brooklyn Fare Affair

Eater commenters have quite a lot to say about Brooklyn Fare chef Cesar Ramirez's dust-up with writer Joshua David Stein, creating an epic thread that's still going strong. A quick recap of the action: there are three rules to dining at Brooklyn Fare, one of which is no note taking. Stein broke the rule and wrote an open letter about how Chef Ramirez yelled at him. Ramirez denied it. Some of our favorite comments (so far):

1) "This chef is more than a little nuts. Joe Doe with cooking skills." —Lex

2) "I do not see any sane objection to note-taking. Beyond that, it’s silly to suggest that, even if I had the recipe, I could reproduce what he is doing." New York Journal

3) "he ought to put a sign up, if you don't like my rules, than get out. everyone complaining is saying how they broke the rules and he was mean. I'd throw you out on your ear - if the man says no photos, then WHY are you taking photos and then complaining about him on a blog?" —guest

4) "last time i was at Ko the pretentious assholes next to me wouldn't stop asking the chef ridiculous questions and taking notes on their blackberries. doesn't anyone go out anymore to enjoy themselves?" —guest

5) "I think all of us should let Ramirez and the diners that fetishize him simply close the kitchen door for one big self-fellating orgy. It's clear that the chef and his followers don't care, but good food with bad service is simply a bad business decision." The takedown continues with a rip on his seemingly less than personable ways. "Ramirez is like an autistic kid. Really skilled and talented in some great ways, but probably no one outside of his immediate family would want to spend any reasonable amount of time with him." —guest

6) "What's up with all of these people saying "Rules are rules???" There are "rules" against gay marriage, but every sane person agrees that they are offensive. There were "rules" in restaurants that used to prevent black people in them, too. Stop being lemmings." —guest

7) "Can you imagine Thomas Keller or Eric Ripert doing this?" — NYC Concierge

8) "While Cesar's response completely disregards the charitable assumption, you need to consider the type of person you are dealing with. Without painting too broad of a stroke, Chef's can be egotistical, introverted, and slightly insecure - attributes that do not lend themselves to true hospitality. There is a REASON they are in the kitchen and owners hire GM's, Service Directors, and FOH Managers to deal with service.

In this case Cesar is not excused for his behavior and the soft-spoken manager copped out, yet I fell like Josh could have went about it a very different way.This is a situation where one wanted to break a clearly stated rule, did so, then was surprised when they were called out on it. Did the punishment fit the crime - no, agreed. But all you had to do was ask if you could write down the names of each amuse, the same way you might ask for any exception to a rule...." —guest

9 "With so many stupid people about, we need "stupid rules" to keep animals like you from ruining things."—guest

10) "I pose this question - a hotel has a policy of no picture taking in the lobby and no sitting on the window sills. A guest does this. Does the desk clerk then have the right to go over to the guest and start screaming "You stupid f*ck! Can't you read the signs?? I can't believe we cater to people like you! Get the f*ck outta the hotel"?"—guest