Despite several media outlet's fervent detective hunts, Sympathy for the Restaurant Industry's author decline confirm or deny speculations. The anonymous scribe believes it's only a matter of time before for the identity is exposed.

"I'm a hack, but I really enjoy writing," Sympathy said via email. "The reason I haven't put my name on [the blog] already is because my writing makes me cringe."

Thursday morning Grub Street's Josh Ozersky told WOR Radio 710 he believed Sympathy was the work of an overzealous Sam-Mason-Tailor girlfriend. Later that afternoon, Ozersky (with co-editor Daniel Mauer) wrote the site sounded suspiciously similar to PXThis, an industry forum headed by former Jean-George employee Abbe Diaz. Today Grub Street changed their tune entirely, commanding readers to "trust" that the real author was disgraced Boston bartender, Gwen Butler.

This spring Butler rattled the posh dining rooms of Boston with her snarky restaurant insider, "The Full Comp." In May, the author shuttered the site amid rumors of legal action after she published "an XXX-rated diatribe" against her former boss, Eastern Standard Kitchen operator, Garrett Harker.

Harker claimed Butler sent his friends "ugly and threatening emails" while writing "baseless and outlandish" lies about his managerial skills. At the time, Butler declined to comment, but the Boston Herald reported she was headed for the Big Apple.

Sympathy denied S4RI was created with specific intentions, writing, "Having intentions implies there's a plan; I have no plan. I'm just writing."

Meanwhile, Gawker debated today the possibility that Diaz was behind the Sympathy curtain, questioning if there could be another writer "bursting with the same vitriol and petty anger and all the same enemies as Ms. Diaz but who is maybe a little more cognizant of the English language."

For now, Sympathy is staying mum and giving few clues on what's to come:

'Readers can expect more of the same development of characters and story arcs that I've begun. I have a true compulsion to write, and I love the characters, so this is the best way for me to do it.

— Stephanie Burton