No Such Dinner

Both the portrayal of Barrington Associates’ practice of hosting $10,000 closing dinners and the reference to a specific such event at Spago that you described in your article “Growing Appetite” (Aug. 31) were inaccurate. My comments on the costs for such events related to extremes to which dinners and related expenditures such as deal mementos can be taken, and not to Barrington’s practices. We have actually never spent $10,000 for such an event. Furthermore, the reference to Spago was intended to identify one of the many venues where closing dinners take place, and was certainly not discussed in the context of a specific transaction. Recharacterizations such as those in your article may make interesting reading, but they are inappropriate and mislead the public about my and my firm’s practices.

ED BAGDASSARIAN

Managing Director

Barrington Associates