Looking forward: Restaurants on Substack
A Q&A with the people behind Smithereens Zine, produced by NYC restaurant Smithereens
Expedite’s peeking into the (near) future this month with a series of interviews covering hot topics changing the business of hospitality. This week: a Q&A with the team behind Smithereens Zine, a particularly excellent restaurant newsletter zine.
Smithereens, a New York Times three-star restaurant, can seat about 50 diners at a time inside its East Village restaurant. But it talks to many more via its monthly newsletter, Smithereens Zine.
Every month for a year, the restaurant has produced a collection of dispatches from the seafood restaurant, sending it to a list of subscribers that almost certainly includes people who have not yet visited. Some issues are themed, like a straightforward one-year anniversary edition (vol. 10) last October, or the more unexpected “clowns” issue from last April (vol.5 — stories are about “clowning around.”) Others read like a collection of stories unified by the restaurant’s personalities and overall style.
The newsletters aren’t particularly gossipy or dramatic, just interesting… the kind of stories (chef musings on a new dish, or a cook’s favorite condiment) that you used to get as a diner only if you spent enough time solo at the bar talking to staff. They’re also part of a larger wave of comms from restaurants targeted to the kind of diner that wants to learn more. (Other fun examples include newsletters from Snail Bar in Oakland, CA and King in New York; another from New York chef-owner Ryan Bartlow debuted last week.)
“We hope that reading an issue of the Smithereens Zine feels like you’re a fly on the wall at pre-service, or a prep cook in the kitchen, listening to us go in on everything,” Smithereens chef-partner Nick Tamburo told me over email. (It does!)
There are more of those vibes inside the Smithereens dining room, like its wine list featuring handwritten notes in a “staff picks” section intended to intrigue.
This reinvigorated restaurant newslettering feels a little like the wave of restaurant tech adoption that sparked this newsletter’s beginning 13 (!!) years ago; then, chefs and restaurants were tapping new-to-them platforms like Twitter and Instagram to share behind-the-scenes info and inspo to better connect with current and prospective diners. There’s no real formula for success — though as a longtime newsletter writer I’m always impressed by anyone who manages to keep up a standard cadence, it’s rough out here.
In every edition, Smithereens taps an industry pro to answer a brief questionnaire. In that spirit, I emailed the Smithereens team my own Q&A; answers below come from Tamburo, Smithereens beverage director-partner Nikita Malhotra, and Smithereens Zine editor Cordelia Calvert. Read to the end for the team’s response to the best question they ask everyone else — plus a whole lot more about the newsletter’s strategy and success (and a li’l exclusive on next month’s theme). The team articulates what makes it so special better than I can. Restaurant people are so good at vibes.
Know another great restaurant letter? Forward your favorites! (Paid subscribers can comment.)
Expedite: Who contributes to Smithereens Zine?
Cordelia Calvert: “The zine features contributions from Smithereens staff. All FOH and BOH staff are invited to contribute, and we have a few recurring columns we play around with like Nikita’s ‘No Spitting.’ Nick and Nikita oversee the content with me. I serve as the editor.”