FR.OG Still Acting Like A Restaurant
When FR.OG arrived on Spring Street back in April, Didier Virot's glittery French fusion restaurant failed to impress. We gently panned it. Eater immediately placed it on its Deathwatch. But FR.OG is still around and is even enjoying a glut of publicity. In the last two weeks alone, FR.OG has been visited by an ambivalent Times critic Frank Bruni, a mooning Postie Steve Cuozzo and an intoxicated Johnny Miles of the Times style-land. It could be the food? But its Iago-like PR company, Hall PR, is happy to take the credit.
An PR source tells us, "The coverage comes from pitches we made to these writers. Johnny Miles' column does great things for restaurants." Though our source (predictably) disagrees, summer in New York is a lull in openings and there isn't much restaurant news, so, if you believe the publicists, items are easily "placed." Though don't tell any of the writers that, because their story will differ.
But if PR companies didn't do any good at all, wouldn't they cease to exist? (Err, wouldn't they?)
Still. When we passed by FR.OG on our way home recently, the restaurant was empty—save for a newly framed copy of Cuozzo's review.
