It wasn't that long ago that Eater, the national food news and gossip site, was practically anti-critic. At its launch in 2005, the site made clear that it would not be publishing any restaurant criticism. And in the intervening years, the site consistently ran a feature called “To Catch A Critic,” wherein its editors attempted to reveal the identity of anonymous restaurant critics.

But apparently all that's behind them. Today, Eater announced it has hired three new restaurant critics. Ryan Sutton, formerly of Bloomberg, will come on as their New York critic, and Robert Sietsema, formerly of the Village Voice, will dedicate his time to the unsung treasures of New York. But perhaps the biggest news, certainly to people outside of New York, is the hiring of Bill Addison as Eater's national restaurant editor.

]Addison will file reviews from all over the country, as well as write stories about national dining trends. He is now the dining editor and restaurant critic for Atlanta Magazine. Before that he was the critic at the Dallas Morning News.

I should mention here that he's also a close friend of mine (I took over for him as critic and food editor at Creative Loafing Atlanta when he left that job to work for the San Francisco Chronicle) but I doubt I'm the only one who would say that he's an incredibly talented and elegant writer. It will be exciting to see what he brings to Eater. 

All three critics will begin their work for Eater in April. 

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