Leslie Brenner is the founder of Leslie Brenner Concepts, a restaurant PR and creative direction firm in Dallas, and the former restaurant critic and dining editor of The Dallas Morning News. She also writes the Substack Leslie Brenner on Restaurants.
A four-star review made André Natera one of the hottest chefs in Dallas. A later two-star review was, in his words, the worst day of his life. Years later, Brenner and André sit down and discuss their shared history. The other half of the story happened in the kitchen. When she was in the dining room, André’s team cooked two portions of everything she ordered, kept a Leslie Brenner portion of the best fish and steak, and planted someone at the next table to listen. She was booking under fake names on burner phones.
- Why a publicist cannot fix a struggling restaurant, and how the best ones build a story out of what the kitchen is already doing
- Why Leslie never recommends influencers for a restaurant, and what she would spend that effort on instead
- What a publicist can and cannot do for a James Beard entry or Michelin, and the sign it is time to replace yours
André Natera and Leslie Brenner cover what it was like to cook for a critic, how Leslie’s reviews looked from the dining room and from the kitchen, why she left the critic’s chair for restaurants, her first week in Dallas, the golden years of the Dallas scene, why a city loses something without a critic at its newspaper of record, how modern Texas cuisine took shape, influencers versus critics, what PR really does for a new restaurant, and when a chef should fire a publicist.
It closes with Leslie’s plan for her new Substack, Leslie Brenner on Restaurants, on how restaurants can earn press without a publicist, and her last word to André: she is glad she got to say sorry.
Recorded in September, before The Dallas Morning News named Sarah Blaskovich its new restaurant critic.
GuestLeslie Brenner Concepts: https://www.lesliebrennerconcepts.com/Leslie Brenner on Restaurants: https://lesliebrenner.substack.com/
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