Ripert to Issue Smackdown on North Carolina Bernardin

A new restaurant called Bernardin is opening soon in North Carolina and Le Bernardin's Eric Ripert is none too pleased, tweeting, "SCOOP We discovered a Bernardin in Winston Salem NC&1inCharlotte NC Both r seafood restaurant Copycat website site etc... No relation w us." He's been asking twitter followers what to send them as a house warming present (they suggest, creepily enough, severed horse heads or dead fish wrapped in newspapers), promised a free dinner to the first person who sends him a picture of the inside, and writes that his business partner, Maguy Le Coze ("la femme NIKITA") is going to deal with them, adding "Now I really feel bad for them."
· Bernardin's, less a Le, to open in uptown [Charlotte Observer via Grub Street]
· @EricRipert [Twitter]