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Journalist dubbed ‘clown’ over positive restaurant review

A regional daily journalist was dubbed a “clown” after suggesting a town’s residents considered a new restaurant’s launch to be “the most exciting thing since sliced bread”.

Nick Lavigueur, of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, sparked the angry response after reviewing a recently-opened steakhouse in Mirfield for the newspaper.

It followed a spate of similarly positive reviews of the Miller and Carter (M&C) restaurant by members of the ‘Mirfield Matters’ Facebook group, most of which heaped praise on its food.

However one member of the group labelled him a “clown” for using the tongue-in-cheek metaphor.

Nick Lavigueur

The Examiner reported on the rant following the initial review, with the disgruntled reader being quoted as adding: “Anyone who compares the arrival of M&C to sliced bread being invented is not really deserving much respect.

“Heard of journalistic licence, but this guy is going a bit far, we Mirfielders have seen renamed pubs come and go, but best thing since sliced bread, why not go the whole hog and compare it to the second coming?”

However, the critic was challenged by others who came to Nick’s defence.

Nick told HTFP: “As ever, these types of exchanges tend to escalate and when a colleague heard about it she suggested a story. I’m told stories about the crazy things people say on Tripadvisor have been popular on some other newspaper websites.

“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this and we had no idea how it would be received.

“Thankfully, it did do well online and inevitably and ironically generated a lot more discussion about the restaurant and our journalism.”

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