Newsletter recommendations
A list of required restaurant industry reading, indie newsletter edition
Independent newsletters are a bright spot in my inbox during a dark time for the media industry. Writers and creatives are finding their stride and finding their audiences in new places, sharing authentic views and voices. This resonates!
I’m planning to play catch up on a significant newsletter backlog this week. Here’s a list of what I’m reading and, in some cases, favorite editions of each letter. (If I didn’t link one, it’s because I couldn’t pick a favorite.)
For deep restaurant thoughts: Elided Opinions
My friend Eli Feldman, a Boston-based restaurateur, keeps me on my toes with his deeply researched and sharp analysis of the modern restaurant business. But this newsletter really shines when it imagines a better restaurant industry future in ways that are completely attainable.
! Bonus content: My interview with Eli about the restaurant AI hackathon he hosted in August:
For NYC-centric business news and gossip: Feed Me
If you’re active on Substack, you’ve heard about Feed Me, a wildly successful daily business newsletter from journalist Emily Sundberg. Emily clearly loves restaurants (I get it! They are fascinating sociological, creative, and business experiments during every service, and there’s no better place to observe humanity than from a solo seat at the bar.) Feed Me arrives daily (respect) with plenty of references to New York’s top dining spots, and Emily is great at finding interesting angles that you’ll want to talk about — in hushed whispers or otherwise — with friends, colleagues, or anyone who’ll listen.
For reported and pragmatic industry news: Consumed
Liz Dunn has written some of my favorite high-profile restaurant industry stories this year, including a New York Magazine piece provocatively titled All the Cool Restaurants Are on OpenTable Now. Together with Jane Black, Liz writes Consumed, which shares news, trends, data, and other expertly sourced info to help readers make decisions about what to eat. Consumed also publishes some pretty epic buying guides.
Favorite edition: Why Bougie Slice Shops are Everywhere
! Bonus content: An interview with Liz Dunn about that NY Mag piece:
For a peek inside the brains of restaurant people: Smithereens Zine
This newsletter is produced by the people who run Smithereens, a perpetually popular restaurant on East 9th Street in New York City. It features stories from inside and adjacent to the restaurant and includes inside looks at suppliers and producers and other food people that make restaurants work.
I’ve found a smattering of good restaurant newsletters on Substack, including Sqirl in LA and Snail Bar in Oakland. I love these stories. Over a decade ago, I contributed to and helped edit a restaurant-based publication called Nopalize, a pre-newsletter-boom blog produced by staff and friends of the restaurant Nopa in San Francisco. I still miss it.
Favorite edition: On the road with Smithereens
For important and tough conversations: The Hunger
Chicago-based critic Michael Nagrant writes in a kind of DGAF style that makes you wonder why the rest of us so often dance around delicate topics. From restaurant reviews to the platforming of important stories — like this one about the business of restaurant influencers — this newsletter feels both fair and honest, even when I personally disagree.
Favorite this year: The James Beard Awards Are Broken
For future-focused food news: New Fare
Technically, this newsletter is a dispatch from a venture capital firm — which is not my preferred content source — but New Fare comes from a female-founded VC firm that supports, in its own words, “businesses of integrity and taste.” (Its investments include “loud and proud” and delicious Asian CPG brand Omsom and the delightfully fun, NYC-based Mexican restaurant chain Tacombi.) The newsletter features refreshing takes from New Fare Partners founder and managing partner Elly Truesdell, sharing thoughtful analysis of trends and ideas from the perspective of someone who writes checks that support the best of the future of food.
Favorite this year: Death by a Thousand Lunches (a slop bowl story!)
For keeping up on what’s new: FOUND (and FOUND NY and FOUND SF and FOUND LDN and more)
My inbox is always full of starred editions of this newsletter that’s full of intel that I hope to use for future travel and dining and general life happiness. FOUND covers restaurants and hotels and real estate around the world — much of it aspirational… but all of it inspirational.
For even more industry inside baseball: The Supersonic: Blackbird's Secret Substack
The latest venture from Resy founder Ben Leventhal serves people who love restaurants (and the people who work in restaurants) in a handful of US cities. Its associated newsletter, The Supersonic, publishes fun dispatches and observations at a manageable cadence for all of us.
Favorite this year: the dramatic conclusion of a series called ‘Undercover Waitress.’
There’s great newsletter content outside of Substack! (But I can’t make these header links orange because… Substack.)
For smart and thoughtful takes on the drinks business: Fingers
Journalist Dave Infante is to the drinks industry what I am to restaurants (at least I like to believe I’m that good!) Dave’s reporting, analysis, and remarkable ability to connect what’s happening in the beverage business to what’s happening in the zeitgeist is so fun to read.
For local reporting inspo: The Food Section
Hanna Raskin wins a lot of awards for her publication focused on the American South. That’s because she knows how to find and report the type of story that all readers — including people like me, who have spent almost no time in the American South — find fascinating.
For tech news: Platformer
Longtime tech journalist Casey Newton frames his coverage around the world’s biggest tech platforms, from Instagram to ChatGPT. Casey has shared smart, informed, and nuanced takes about some of the biggest names and news stories this year, from Elon to Zuckerberg.
For engaging food features: Best Food Blog
You can count me among the Xennials that are still mourning the decline (or outright loss) of print magazines. The group of writers behind Best Food Blog write stories that feel like magazine features and are proudly unbeholden to investors or SEO departments or click-through rates. A bright spot indeed.
What am I missing? Paid subscribers can comment below.
Interesting how, except for Eli Fieldman, who reports on his AI experimentation, few publications are centered around hospitality tech. It may be a conscious choice or just something that does not interest anybody on this platform (Substack being more oriented toward culture and Twitter for tech)?