On February 4, 2024, in our Wassup section, we wrote one sentence about the Starving Artist restaurant:
“The Starving Artist will not be opening in the spring.” We also said that “The eatery collection in town is shrinking.”
A knowledgable acquaintance of Arnold Teixeira, the owner, told us that Teixeira wanted to leave his business for personal reasons.
Evidently he had been trying to sell the Starving Artist restaurant, although we did not have that information then.
He contacted us in our comments section on Feb 7 to say that he will be opening in the spring. We immediately corrected the error.
But in his comments of Feb 7, were some crude. biased and obnoxious remarks which we chose not to post.*.
However now we will reveal that 2/7 comment’s entire content*:
*”It’s Arnold from the Starving Artist. Why would you write about something you know nothing about? Did you ever call me or ask me if I was reopening? I am in the third year of a 20 year lease.
“It’s hard enough to sustain a business in this town without people like you making people think we’re closed down. I would appreciate or do I dare demand a retraction. You can include that we will be reopening on March 21, 2024.”
The bold face is Blogfinger’s.
So we immediately made the Feb 7 correction. Our new headline said:
“The Starving Artist will reopen in the spring, March 21, according to Arnold Teixeira.”
We wanted our readers, which average 350-400 per day, to know about his reopening.
So it seemed that the issue was over.
But today, Feb 11, I was sent a copy of some public statements which Teixeira made on his Facebook page and amazingly on the Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.
Evidently the Starving Artist is hungry for trouble, and we will make what he said public–with no changes below:
“As many of you might have read, our local “journalist” Blogfinger ran an article last week stating that The Starbing (sic) Artist will not be reopening this year. Well, I’m calling BULLSH*T !
(The asterisks and boldface are ours in that foul word which he used twice; all spelling mistakes are his)
“Yes! I did list the business for sale. No! It did not sell.
“We did extend our closure due to a ilack of traffic in town (the one fact he did get right!) AND because of the fact that I am still in Monteverde,Costa Rica doing some volunteer work. I did blast him in his reply comments and demanded a retraction, but I doubt I will hear back.
“Like I told him, it’s hard enough to do business in Ocean Grove with out adding more confusion that we are shutting down! The town has become ridicuously seasonal and OGCoC snd OGCMA cramming a million events into a short summer season are making it inaccessible to day trippers.
“Its a case of ‘that place is so busy nobody goes there anymore.'”
“However when I return I am going right back to the restaurant for the 2024 season. I have a few extensive repairs that came to light after we closed so I’m not sure if sn exact exact date BUT……don ‘t tell anyone we’re shooting for March 21 barring outside contractor delays.
“The blogfinger dude is lucky I was 3000 mile away or I would have been at his door to get in his face over this! How dare you Blogfinger?! (The bold print is ours; the threat is his.)
“The rest of you, I look forward to seeing you in the upcoming season! So next time you all hear this rumor you can call BULLSH*T too. You got your info right from this ridiculously tanned horses mouth!”
So this guy threatens, intimidates, impugns our motives, distorts the truth about this town, and uses foul language. He refers to his “horses mouth,” but he is actually a horse’s ass.
You might be interested in knowing that Blogfinger wrote about Teixeira in the summer of 2022 when he went public to criticize the town of Ocean Grove. Click the link below for some more insight into this solid citizen.
You all can see for yourself how he is; we certainly will never go back to his place again and maybe others will also change their minds about him. We have published quite a few posts admiring his restaurant scene, but no more.
As for the OG Chamber of Commerce, their Facebook page needs editing or maybe they don’t care how he soils their page.
Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net. February 11, 2024. Ocean Grove, NJ. USA.
LEVON HELM. From the Imus Ranch album. “You Better Move On.”
Every news organization makes mistakes and then corrects them as soon as possible, as occurred in this case.
The NY Times makes many mistakes every day. Correcting errors is an important function at that paper.
This is what they say at the Times: “The Times’s primary responsibility is to give readers accurate information, and our readers trust us to do that. By acknowledging our mistakes quickly and transparently, we build on that fundamental trust.”
Rogene Jacquette, corrections editor
We agree with that at Blogfinger.net
Jeneba. I know you and thank you for your support. Paul
By the way, a customer of the Artist sent us a photo in September 2023 which reveals that Teixeira had made no secret of his plans:
“I snapped this photo the other day. It resonated deeply with me and I am sure it will with others, especially since the Starving Artist is up for sale.”
And not one person cared enough to make a comment about this accurate revelation 6 months ago on Blogfinger.
I will find somewhere else to have brunch.