Forbes’ Roger Friedman Goes After Rodale’s Dave Zinczenko Again, Zinczenko Zings Back

Roger Friedman, the seemingly peripatetic blogger, doesn’t like the “hip” Lion restaurant in New York. Actually, he really really despises it. Apparently he wasn’t treated well enough when he visited and since he lives across the street, he finds the doorman for the joint beyond annoying. Fair enough. Who cares?

But Friedman has also repeatedly used his various platforms to complain about two media folks who helped launch the hot spot. Mediaite founder Dan Abrams and his bromance pal Dave Zinczenko, Sr. VP at Rodale who runs Men’s Health. Friedman has accused Zinczenko, in particular, of betraying the beloved Elaine Kaufman of Elaine’s for starting his own eating establishment (Did we mention that Friedman hates it?) after developing, and devouring, his chops as a regular there. In fact, Zinczenko wrote about his memories of Elaine’s for Mediaite, and while it remains unclear why she would have been so upset about Zinczenko getting involved in a restaurant miles away, it has made for amusing reading for those of us who secretly enjoy seeing our boss getting mocked as Friedman keeps lumping him in with Dave Z on this.

The latest salvo came this weekend when Friedman reported for Forbes on a charity auction, where Zinczenko won a barstool from Elaine’s for $1250. The proceeds go to Wounded Warriors, a charity that helps wounded soldiers, but Friedman felt it was Elaine’s memory that was wounded:

“It’s ironic, by the way, that Zinczenko won the bar stool. A regular in the last few years, he and pal Dan Abrams left and became investors in a terrible restaurant downtown that they considered “hip.” Elaine was not amused.” Ouch. Double zinger. The Lion sucks and so do they. Dan did not want to comment for this story (yes, we were able to contact him) but pal Zinczenko offered us up a quote that made this post worthwhile:

“It is sad that Roger Friedman keeps invoking Elaine’s memory as a sword. Those who knew Elaine best, also know what she really thought of Roger.” Roger that.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.