Fired restaurant critic: ‘At least now I can go out to eat and not have to duck’

Chicago Tribune | Time Out Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times restaurant critic Pat Bruno, 68, isn’t happy that he was pink-slipped via a phone call from a mid-level editor after decades with the tabloid. “I’ve known (publisher) John Barron for 28 years,” he says. “All he had to do is pick up the phone and tell me himself. He didn’t have the balls to do that. I wasn’t expecting roses at my feet, just a phone call from someone who appreciated what I did all these years.” There’s no word on what the Sun-Times will run in his place, reports Chicago Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel. “Bruno won’t disappear, I’m guessing,” he writes. He’ll land freelance work elsewhere, maybe start a blog (‘I have to figure out how to do that,’ he joked), maybe show his face, peeking out from that wide-brimmed hat of his, on TV.”