The Matter of The Must: Owners' Response & Our Apology

Earlier this week, Eater LA posted the contents of an email tip purporting to detail behind-the-scenes doings at the restaurant The Must. We ran this tip without contacting the owners of the restaurant, who have since refuted the tip in its entirety. We apologize to the owners of the restaurant, and our readers, for not investigating our source's claims before airing them on the site. The resulting post didn't rise to our standards, and we shouldn't have published it.

We offered the owners of The Must a chance to respond here, and promised we'd print, unedited, their words. Their response follows.

EATER LA “MUST” LISTEN TO DOUCHEBAGS

On Tuesday, June 30th, the website Eater LA posted a “story” about our bar/restaurant entitled “The Must Bar- Kitchen Not so Confidential.” In this story, the writer, Kat Odell quoted a “tipster” as her source. However this in no way shape or form gives this publication the right to post these fabricated “tips” without ANY intention of verifying these allegations. Eater LA did not make any effort to contact us, which leads us to believe that both Eater LA and Kat Odell lack in basic journalistic ethics and codes of conduct. Elina Shatkin called us after hearing about the Eater LA post and, with us, reviewed the allegations, one at a time, asking us which, if any, were true. Here is the link to the LA Times blog providing our side of the story. As previously stated, we are APPALLED at Eater LA for such a posting and would like nothing more to do with them or any affiliated sites.

We love our customers and know that anyone who has actually been to our establishment would know the genuine labor of love that The Must is for our entire staff and us. We are quite busy right now, sitting on deck, sipping on our house made sangria, nibbling on Humboldt Fog and enjoying the beauty of all these amazing ice caps.

Sincerely,
Rachel Thomas & Coly Den Haan
Owners of The MUST

Ps: We have included a pic of our chef Greg De Michiel, who we love; he thought this would make a funny addition to this post ? this is today’s meat delivery, from a fantastic company with which we have been working since day one. Thanks again Eater LA and Good Luck!