It was with great sadness that I recently read about the death of a true original: John Hinterberger, the pioneering one-time restaurant critic for the Seattle Times. At one time, his Times’ column was second in city readership only to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s “Dear Abby” advice column and, since the P-I had fewer readers than the Times, that made him top draw.
“Hint” as his comrades in newsprint knew him, penned opinions and restaurant reviews for a quarter of a century before finally retiring for a second time in the 1990s. On March 25, he died at 92 at his home in Kirkland.
But oh! how he shone during his news-writing years, more a storyteller than a critic. He had reluctantly taken on the columnist’s role in the 1960s. At the time, Hinterberger was working at the Times as a police reporter – a job taken to pay the rent while he completed a graduate degree in drama at the University of Washington. When columnist Tom Robbins left the Times to write novels, Arts and Entertainment Editor Lou Guzzo picked Hinterberger to take over…