I’m a freelance writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York.
I started my career at Food & Wine and have worked in and around food media ever since. I also have an MFA in creative nonfiction. This newsletter is one way of making myself use it.
Subscribe and you’ll get, in your inbox, a steady-ish stream (emphasis on the ish) of stream-of-consciousness restaurant reviews—collected portraits of restaurants I love in the form of short vignettes, tone poems, projections, vague impressions, and so on. I’ll also include pictures, recommended dishes, and the occasional recording of ambient noise.
Where are these restaurants? Many will be in New York City. Some will be in other places.
How do you choose? If a restaurant has it, I’ll write about it.
What is it? I can’t really explain. This whole project is essentially me trying to figure that out.
Can you at least give some general parameters? I gravitate toward places that do one or more of the following: are out of the way or easy to miss; have some sociocultural significance or legitimately earn a label like icon or institution; showcase a cuisine, philosophy, history, or set of ingredients that are new to me; are not owned by a huge restaurant group; use enough salt; look a little worse for wear; look immaculate, but in a way that has character; take care of me when I happen to be dining solo; have carpet or popcorn ceilings or both; have regulars, especially regulars that roll their eyes at me; make me feel like I just got let in on a huge secret.
Are you paying for your meals? At the moment, most of the restaurants I’ve written about are ones I happened upon in my daily life. Of course, for food media people, going to press previews and friends-and-family parties and “hosted meals” and such is part of the job, and if, in the process, I find a restaurant that has it, I’ll write about it. I don’t anticipate writing about a restaurant that has specifically comped my meal often, if ever. The bar is high. Also, I’ll always note when I got something for free.
Why are you doing this? I want these reviews to be un-self-conscious, and to leave intact all the weirdnesses that an editor like me would usually edit out.
Who is this for? Mostly me, maybe you :)
