Was Pete Wells’ skewering of Guy Fieri just the tip of the iceberg?

Who knew the bleached-blond bomber could attract this much attention? Guy Fieri probably hasn’t seen his name in print this often since, well, forever. But Pete Wells’ much-discussed takedown of Fieri’s new Times Square restaurant has generated a ton of comment.

One of the best things to come out of it has been journalism guru Jim Romenesko’s roundup of restaurant critics across the country recounting their bad reviews and the reactions to them.

Our own Jonathan Gold leads off, remembering his review of Olive Garden (written for the LA Weekly) that started out as a birthday prank on his favorite photographer. Bill Daley of the Chicago Tribune relates that “I was never threatened covering the cops beat nor while reporting on a big Mafia trial, but I was threatened -- twice -- for writing negative reviews of two restaurants. Shows where the passion is, I guess.”

[Corrected 3:32 p.m. Nov. 19: An earlier version of this post misspelled the name of Jim Romenesko as Romanesko.]

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