Daily News gossip/lovers Rush and Molloy tell the entertaining story of a careless food critic who left her notebook at newly-refurbished Brasserie 44.

Waiters at Brasserie 44 at the Royalton Hotel thought they'd made the catch of the day last week when they found a mystery diner's notebook. When they peeked inside to determine the owner, they realized it could only belong to a restaurant critic. What's more, the notes were so sophisticated, they reasoned it must belong to Frank Bruni, culinary arbiter of The New York Times.

Of course it wasn't Bruni's who doesn't make a habit of leaving his notes at the places he reviews. The call, it turns out, was coming from inside the building.

A careful reader of the Daily News will notice that our favorite critic Danyelle Freeman just so happens to review Brasserie 44 in today's paper. And with prose "so sophisticated" like "sequestered deep inside the belly of the hotel, Brasserie 44 is strangely adrift in a veritable abyss" it's no mystery whose notebook was lost. Adrift! Veritable! Sequester! Abyss! That does sound sophisticated. But perhaps the best part of the Rush and Molloy item is the creepiest part at the end.

[F]ood and beverage manager John Cassanos tells us, "I thought it would be a great idea for a play, to have a restaurateur murder a critic before the review comes out."

Woah! Cassanos, totally the new Peter Braunstein.