City Pages Announces Two New Food Critics Hired

City Pages announced late last week that they have hired two new food critics to take over for Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, the longtime CP food writer now departed to Minnesota Monthly. As it turns out, CP arranged a swap with MN Mo -- the lead dining writer at CP will be Rachel Hutton, who has been at MN Mo for the past six years, and the "cheap eats" half-page will be written by her MN Mo associate, Jim Norton, who also writes wrote the Skeptical Diner posts on Metroblogging Minneapolis, among other side gigs.

Andrew Zimmern nods approvingly (end of post), and it will be interesting to see what the changes bring about. I was never a huge fan of Moskowitz Grumdahl, a two-time James Beard-awarded writer who has a writing style that can be just a bit too precious for my taste. On the other hand, MN Mo has that "thou shalt not criticize," local boosterism policy of restaurant reviewing, so it'll be interesting to see (a) how Moskowitz Grumdahl fits into that ethos and (b) what happens to Hutton when she is turned loose from it. No such worries about Norton, who has been alternatively beaming and grouchy on MetMN, two qualities I completely admire.