The Danny Meyer Mystery may be over. While we yesterday suggested that the guilty might be Esquire's John Mariani, that appears not to be the case. Several sources suggest we check out Crain's Bob Lape. Following the Eater cue that "the list of reviewiers who, circa 2000, employed a star system and goose-egged Tabla and two-starred Blue Smoke is not long," we looked at the Crain's archives. Results? In 1999, Lape gave Tabla no stars ("With his new Indian/American restaurant, Tabla, Danny Meyer dares go where few have succeeded. So far, he hasn't either."), but after experiencing Meyer's hospitality, he found Blue Smoke worthy of two stars. ("Magic dust. that's what Danny Meyer brings to his new restaurants").

Earlier today we asked for help in identifying the anonymous food critic Danny Meyer bribed for a good review. Eater moves the story along with the actual excerpt from Meyer's book. Relevant passage after the jump:

Restaurateur Danny Meyer, whose quick attention to detail saved the Shake Shack from a full fecal outbreak this summer, has a new book out, and it gets a bit of a pasting in Slate. Jill Hunter Pellettieri calls Setting the Table"trite," "too touchy feely," and full of "gimmicky nuggets." (Much like the burgers at Shake Shack this summer.) Pellettieri says this more in sorrow than anger, since she, like most people who follow the industry, is full of admiration for Meyer. Another Meyer admirer, presumably, is the "unidentified critic" mentioned in today's Page Six: