Steve Dolinsky Responds to Getting Kicked Out of G.E.B.

In a blog post titled, "My First Restaurant Ejection!" ABC 7's Steve Dolinsky responds to being ejected, mid-meal, from G.E.B., Graham Elliot's new West Loop restaurant. Quick recap: The Hungry Hound was asked to leave the restaurant after Elliot had instructed his staff to ban Dolinsky from eating in any of his restaurants. Elliot was offended by tweets Dolinsky made last fall during and after a meal at Charlie Trotter's that disappointed him.

In his post, Dolinsky recounts the situation, that he felt pretty blindsided after a manager relayed the news that Elliot said to present Dolinsky with a check. "I was just stunned, that's all," Dolinsky told Eater. "It sounds a lot worse when you say 'kicked out.' They ceased service and decided to stop serving me. No one ever said, 'Get out of the restaurant.'"

Dolinsky said the manager was quite apologetic and embarrassed about having to present him with the check, but that didn't quell the resulting situation. In his blog post, Dolinsky questioned why, if Elliot was upset by Dolinsky's dissing of Trotter, why this is the first time he's heard anything about it, nine months after the fact.

Dolinsky said he agrees everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but that perhaps Elliot, "doesn’t care for people who have informed opinions" despite Elliot being quite vocal when someone says something negative about him or his restaurants. Case in point: the now-infamous "FUCK CHICAGO MAGAZINE" tweet from two years ago.

And these opinions? Eater readers had plenty to say, both positive and negative, about both Dolinsky and Elliot. As of this posting, there were more than 60 comments left on the site about the situation. "If people want to say stuff about me and about him it's not my business to wade into that," Dolinsky said. "That's all I can say."

On Thursday, Elliot told Eater it was his prerogative as a restaurant owner to ask someone to leave, but if that person hadn't actually done anything to deserve getting the boot, is it still OK? "When they cross the line and start banning people for tweeting about someone else, yelling back at them online in an attempt to publicly humiliate them and telling them they can basically piss off," Dolinsky wrote on his blog, "Well, at what point do people say “enough”?"
· My First Restaurant Ejection [Steve Dolinsky]
· Graham Elliot Kicks Steve Dolinsky Out of G.E.B. During Lunch, Defends Position [~EChi~]

[Photo: Twitter]