Is it fair to out a restaurant critic … as a critic?

Until yesterday, I hadn’t heard the story of Los Angeles restaurant owner Noah Ellis of Red Medicine, who “outed” a restaurant critic — S. Irene Virbila of The Los Angeles Times — by kicking her and her friends out of his restaurant last week.

A story on Smart Blog on Restaurants reports that Ellis was “holding a grudge over earlier mixed reviews that panned dishes at other restaurants he ran as well as a negative critique of earlier work by Red Medicine’s chef.” Ellis also took a photograph of the usually anonymous Virbila and posted it on the restaurant’s website. (It has since been taken down.)