According to OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano, the Orange County Register has settled on who gets to fill one of the paper’s choicest reporter openings. His sources say the job of food critic has gone to Brad A. Johnson.

By sheer coincidence, we mentioned Johnson just the other day in our interview piece with new Time Out Los Angeles editor Lisa Sweetingham. From the OC Weekly report:

Johnson was the longtime food critic for Angeleno (the sister luxury mag to our Riviera), where he earned mucho praise for succinct yet florid reviews not just of the higher strata of Los Angeles restaurants but also the holes-in-the-wall that make modern-day food criticism such a joy to read.

He won the Beard in 2008 as Best Restaurant Critic, and won the same award in 2010 for something called the World Food Media Award, which I guess justifies Johnson calling himself the “best food critic in American and worldwide” on his home page.

We’ve reached out to the Register for additional details. If we get them, we will update below. Meanwhile, from the latest tweets at the Johnson end, it appears that he was resting up pre-new job by sampling the delights of San Miguel de Allende. Nice.

Update – 10/05/12: A spokesperson for the Register has confirmed Arellano’s report to FishbowlLA. Johnson will start November 12. Congrats.

Previously on FishbowlLA:

Orange County Register Reclaims Its Daily Business Section
OC Register Publisher Thanks Troops for Good Start