Premature Burial for Urban Campfire…
The restaurant business is hard enough in this challenging economy without the press throwing handfuls of dirt down from the top of the hole. This week we enjoyed the following keystone-cops sequence from the local press. First this from Azcentral:
Valley restaurants forced to close: Urban Campfire, Twisted
Howard Seftel
Republic restaurant critic
Mar. 26, 2008 08:58 AM
[...]And Urban Campfire, a six-month-old Tempe rib joint, also had to close its doors after barely six months.
Soon after came this, from Jess Harter at the Tribune:
Despite published reports, Tempe’s Urban Campfire still open
March 26th, 2008 by Jess Harter
This morning, the Arizona Republic reported the eight-month-old Tempe restaurant had closed its doors. A few hours later, the Phoenix New Times, presumably picking up the news from the Republic, reported the same thing.
Unfortunately, it appears neither bothered to call the restaurant to check.
(By the way, I commend Harter for urging readers to support local restaurants in this piece.)
Finally, this morning we have a nice review of smoked crow from Seftel:
Urban Campfire not closing
Howard Seftel
“[T]he end isn’t here. Stempkowski and partner Steve Wolff report that they are “still fighting,” and open for business.”
Oh well, I always thought Seftel was the Dr. Kevorkian of food writers, anyway….
