Blogs convict wrong eatery

This is why they’re called “blogs,” not journalism. Last Wednesday, EmpireStateNews.net reported that Anthony Bastone, owner of Bronx Italian restaurant F & J Pine Tavern, “aka Frankie & Johnny’s,” had been convicted of a $3 million tax fraud. New York magazine-owned GrubStreet.com picked up the item on Christmas Eve and identified the eatery as “steakhouse standby Frankie & Johnnie’s” — which naturally caused many to assume it meant the famed Manhattan places. So did other blogs, among them LostCityNew York, which stated, “The owner of 83-year-old Times Square steakhouse Frankie & Johnnie’s” had pleaded guilty. GrubStreet scrambled to post a corrected version, but online falsehoods can be stubborn things. A Google search of Bastone’s name last night still found references to the “Times Square steakhouse,” which has no connection to F & J Pine. But, as they say in blog-ville: “Never mind.”