Posted at 2:15 PM ET, 12/16/2010

Outside opinions: what others thought of our rant

By Tim Carman

rant image.jpg Last time I checked, my rant about the New York Times had generated 85 comments, much of them splintering off into a discussion about which city has better cuisine: NYC or DC?

Frankly, that wasn't the point. The essay is actually more of a satire about one paper's lightweight campaign to characterize D.C.'s dining scene over the years. Washingtonians, apparently the richest and smartest people in America, seemed to understand that. New Yorkers...well, they grunted, played with their belly buttons and continued to insist on their superiority. Consider some of the Big Apple's response:

FishbowlNY: "What Carman doesn’t seem to grasp is that the tongue-in-cheek approach is worthless when talking about this city. At one point Carman hypothetically asks, “Do you get tired of being right all the time?” and every New Yorker from Midtown to East New York would resoundingly answer “No.” Carman sarcastically saying how superior this city is when attacking the Times and Steinhauer’s piece doesn’t work because all we do is sit back and nod in agreement. There’s a reason New Yorkers act like it’s the best city in the world: because it is."

New York Observer: "Anyway, instead of building a grandiose defense of Washington's restaurants, or at least its food culture, it falls back on that longstanding inferiority complex. "We understand by now," the article reads. "You're better than we are. Your fashion is better than ours, your art is better and, of course, your restaurants are better. Washingtonians will forever cower in the long shadow cast by Gotham, nervously picking our nails and hoping you will like us one day." Correct on all counts! Now can we go back to ignoring you, Washington Post? We're busy reading The Times over New York's unparalleled bagels, coffee, pizza, pastrami, matzoh ball soup, pretzels, falafel, dumplings, and all the restaurant food places in D.C. can't compete with."

EaterNY: "Sounds like someone's feelings were hurt!"

The response closer to home has been largely supportive -- well, aside from DCist's dig. (Sample quote: "Even if we are being bullied, we all know that the best way to deal with it is not to react at all.") Some other local commentary:

We Love DC: "Carman’s snarky criticism of the brash junk-food berating the NYT gave our fine city last week is a must-read for any DC foodie."
Washington City Paper (my alma mater!): Response unpublishable.
DonRockwell.com: "Sigh. I guess it's my wasted journalistic dreams talking, but it hurts to see the NYT take such an easy out with DC. And props to Carman for calling it like it is -- and he didn't even need to invoke the favored word to do it."
Twitter: Too many to mention, but here's a look at most of the Tweets. This, however, may be the most flattering and simultaneously most embarrassing Tweet of them all.