Since the Travel Channel aired No Reservations: Cleveland on Monday, many locals have aired their discontent for the places that Anthony Bourdain did and didn’t visit. Even Scene’s own Jared Klaus had a few issues of his own, with which I’d have to concur. Skyline Chilli? WTF?
However, Bourdain did make up for his Cincinnati-inspired grievance by visiting Hot Sauce Williams with Cleveland’s culinary star, Mike Symon. But what most critical viewers have clearly forgotten is that television is little more than an art of omission. According to Michael Ruhlman’s blog, there were many places Bourdain visited that were cut from the final edit, including the mysterious Velvet Tango Room. Ruhlman says that even Bourdain was pissed that the uber-exclusive bar didn’t make it on tape. — Denise Grollmus
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2007.
That episode had little to no representation of the cleveland restaurant scene. As a chef, a cleveland native, and a huge Bourdain fan, I was very upset that I looked forward to that episode for seven months.
hello, it’s cleveland, not ny.
let’s lighten up.
it would have been better if mr. bourdain had visited columbus.
Come on, you guys gotta lighten up a bit. That show won’t make or break Cleveland in outsiders’ minds. Sheesh. You think you had it bad? Did you ever see the NJ episode? Forget some of the stereotypical stuff, just look at the beach scene. Of all the miles of pristine beaches he could have gone to, he went to ghost town Asbury Park (granted, it was a childhood thing). People joke that NJ is the armpit of America. Well, if that’s true than Asbury Park is the matted, tangled armpit hair that hasn’t seen a shower or a tab of deoderant in about 10 years. But we still love Tony… even if he did forget to praise the pork roll.