Foodie Fight

There has long been an unspoken etiquette among local food writers and restaurants: When criticism is dished out, it comes sweetened with civility.

Until two weeks ago. Over the holidays, Mitch Omer, a tall, white-haired Minneapolis restaurateur with a proclivity for cowboy boots, lashed out at Travel Channel star and longtime local food critic Andrew Zimmern.

Omer's celebrated 10th Street breakfast spot, Hell's Kitchen, has never been the subject of Zimmern's widely read column in Mpls.St.Paul magazine, but he nonetheless has a bone to pick with the Twin Cities' most famous foodie. In a screed posted on The Rake's website, Omer claims that Zimmern "bludgeons local eateries with a blunt instrument: his pen" while "sucking the gastronomic dick" of "stupid fucking elitist" establishments.

Drawn into the feud are two other local food critics, a food critic's husband, and the editor of Mpls.St.Paul magazine.

Read the rest here.