Jeff Weinstein (born September 8, 1947) [1] is an American critic, editor, fiction writer and union activist, best known as a former restaurant critic for the Village Voice, where he was also on staff from 1981 to 1995. [1] [2] In 1982, he helped negotiate a Voice union contract that extended health insurance and other benefits, which the newspaper already provided to married couples and, as a matter of practice, to unmarried heterosexual couples, to same-sex couples. [3] [4] The agreement was the second union contract in the United States, the first by a private company, and the first to be widely reported on, to offer same-sex couples these protections. [5] [6]
Weinstein was born and raised in New York City. [7] A type 1 diabetic since age 8, [8] [7] he studied biology at Brandeis University, and did graduate work at the University of California, Riverside and the University of California, San Diego. [1] [6] At UCSD, Weinstein was a member of the Radical Coalition, where he participated in the United Farm Workers lettuce boycott against Safeway. [6] He was also the first out gay student on campus. [9]
Weinstein was hired to write restaurant reviews for the San Diego Reader when he was 25 years old, in 1972. [6] He quit in early 1973, because of articles the Reader published that he considered to be “sexist and racist crap.” [6] While primarily a nonfiction writer, Weinstein also wrote fiction in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, including the short story “A Jean-Marie Cookbook,” which won a 1979-80 Pushcart Prize, [6] [10] and the novella Life in San Diego, which was published by Sun & Moon Press in 1983, [11] with illustrations by the artist Ira Joel Haber. [11]
After he moved back to New York, Weinstein worked as a restaurant critic for the SoHo Weekly News and later joined the Village Voice as both a restaurant critic and as Senior Editor, overseeing pieces about visual art and architecture. [12] [13] As a food critic, Weinstein is known for his uncommon prose style and perspective, [14] his interest in covering a variety of restaurants in their own particular cultural and socioeconomic contexts, [6] [7] and his “roving intellectual appetite.” [14] In 1983, Weinstein helped found the National Writers Union, for which he served as East Coast representative to the Union's executive board. [1] [15]
Weinstein collected his Village Voice restaurant column, “Eating Around,” into a book, Learning to Eat, [16] which Sun & Moon Press published in 1988. [16] During his tenure at the Voice, Weinstein also wrote a column about consumerism, entitled “Consumerismo.” [6] [17]
From 1997 to 2006, [18] he was columnist and fine arts editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer. [19] [20] He subsequently served as arts and culture editor for Bloomberg News, [18] and currently writes the LGBTQIA-related blog “Out There” on ArtsJournal.com. [1] [21]
Weinstein was partnered with the writer, critic and artist John Perreault from 1976 [22] [3] until Perreault's death in 2015. [23] The couple married in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2008. [3] Since 2017, [24] Weinstein has been partnered with the writer and critic Daniel Felsenthal, [25] with whom he lives in New York City [25] and in Bellport, Long Island. [26]
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Jeff Weinstein (born September 8, 1947) [1] is an American critic, editor, fiction writer and union activist, best known as a former restaurant critic for the Village Voice, where he was also on staff from 1981 to 1995. [1] [2] In 1982, he helped negotiate a Voice union contract that extended health insurance and other benefits, which the newspaper already provided to married couples and, as a matter of practice, to unmarried heterosexual couples, to same-sex couples. [3] [4] The agreement was the second union contract in the United States, the first by a private company, and the first to be widely reported on, to offer same-sex couples these protections. [5] [6]
Weinstein was born and raised in New York City. [7] A type 1 diabetic since age 8, [8] [7] he studied biology at Brandeis University, and did graduate work at the University of California, Riverside and the University of California, San Diego. [1] [6] At UCSD, Weinstein was a member of the Radical Coalition, where he participated in the United Farm Workers lettuce boycott against Safeway. [6] He was also the first out gay student on campus. [9]
Weinstein was hired to write restaurant reviews for the San Diego Reader when he was 25 years old, in 1972. [6] He quit in early 1973, because of articles the Reader published that he considered to be “sexist and racist crap.” [6] While primarily a nonfiction writer, Weinstein also wrote fiction in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, including the short story “A Jean-Marie Cookbook,” which won a 1979-80 Pushcart Prize, [6] [10] and the novella Life in San Diego, which was published by Sun & Moon Press in 1983, [11] with illustrations by the artist Ira Joel Haber. [11]
After he moved back to New York, Weinstein worked as a restaurant critic for the SoHo Weekly News and later joined the Village Voice as both a restaurant critic and as Senior Editor, overseeing pieces about visual art and architecture. [12] [13] As a food critic, Weinstein is known for his uncommon prose style and perspective, [14] his interest in covering a variety of restaurants in their own particular cultural and socioeconomic contexts, [6] [7] and his “roving intellectual appetite.” [14] In 1983, Weinstein helped found the National Writers Union, for which he served as East Coast representative to the Union's executive board. [1] [15]
Weinstein collected his Village Voice restaurant column, “Eating Around,” into a book, Learning to Eat, [16] which Sun & Moon Press published in 1988. [16] During his tenure at the Voice, Weinstein also wrote a column about consumerism, entitled “Consumerismo.” [6] [17]
From 1997 to 2006, [18] he was columnist and fine arts editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer. [19] [20] He subsequently served as arts and culture editor for Bloomberg News, [18] and currently writes the LGBTQIA-related blog “Out There” on ArtsJournal.com. [1] [21]
Weinstein was partnered with the writer, critic and artist John Perreault from 1976 [22] [3] until Perreault's death in 2015. [23] The couple married in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2008. [3] Since 2017, [24] Weinstein has been partnered with the writer and critic Daniel Felsenthal, [25] with whom he lives in New York City [25] and in Bellport, Long Island. [26]
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