Jeffrey Chodorow seems to have had the last laugh with Kobe Club. Though Chodorow received zero-star reviews from Frank Bruni and Adam Platt, and then placed a now-legendary full-page ad in the Times protesting those reviews, Kobe Club is still in business. The Kobe Beach Club, in the Hamptons, is doing boffo receipts, as well, and now we're told by Chodorow's PR reps that he plans to open a Kobe Club in Acapulco later this year and one in Los Angeles in the future. The chef, who is said to be eager to compete with Wolfgang Puck's successful Cut, hasn't found a space in California yet. “L.A. loves things that are upscale, and you can’t get any more upscale than the Kobe Club,” says rep Karine Bakhoum. We don't know if that's true, but at least the critics there can't be any harsher than their East Coast counterparts.

Related: We Ask Jeffrey Chodorow If He’s Been Feeling Well Lately