Fearless Critic Media is a fresh, independent, consumer-focused food and wine publishing house founded in 2006. We are dedicated to brutally honest reporting. Our feisty local food critics maintain total independence from the restaurants that they review, and our national panel of wine critics maintains total independence from wineries. We’re reader-supported, not ad-supported, and we accept no advertising from restaurants, wine brands, or other interested parties. We hope you’ll join our movement.
Fearless Critic founder and editor-in-chief Robin Goldstein (photo | higher-res photo | twitter) has devoted his career to independent food and wine reporting. Educated at Harvard College and Yale Law School, trained in cooking at the French Culinary Institute and wine at WSET, Goldstein founded Fearless Critic after years writing travel guides for Fodor’s in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Goldstein became one of the world’s most talked-about wine critics when he won a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for a restaurant that didn’t exist, calling into question the integrity of food and wine awards. He has appeared on TV and radio and in news media worldwide, including NPR, the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Rai 1, La Repubblica, El País, London Times, Epoca, and Der Spiegel.
Goldstein’s first restaurant guide, published in 2003, covered New Haven, Connecticut, and it was entitled The Menu, co-authored with Clare Murumba. Goldstein and Murumba also published a restaurant guide to Northampton, Amherst, and the five-college area of Western Massachusetts as part of The Menu series. (The content from those two books are currently being integrated into the Fearless Critic series and website, and a revised and updated Fearless Critic New Haven restaurant guide—the third edition—is coming in April 2009.)
In 2006, Goldstein founded Fearless Critic Media in Austin, Texas, where associate publisher Alexis Herschkowitsch, along with a host of new writers, joined the team with the release of the Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide, which was followed by the Fearless Critic Houston Restaurant Guide in 2007. The Wine Trials, a guide to inexpensive wines, was released in 2008.
Since September 2008, Fearless Critic Media has been partnered with Workman Publishing Company in New York, who now distributes all of our titles. Bookstores and retail stores should order Fearless Critic titles through Workman.
Companies interested in custom books, bulk discounts, gift sales, etc. should contact Fearless Critic directly.
