New York Times has a Car-bone to pick
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm trying to take it down. Plus a new book about Malort.
When Pete Wells stepped down as the lead New York Times restaurant critic, I was a bit worried about the quality of the reviews. Both Priya Krishna and Melissa Clark are great, but would anyone with “temporary” in the title be willing to take big swings or hot takes?
Extremely yes, it turns out. Krishna’s most recent Critic Notebook is an instant classic. She visits every Carbone in America (NYC, Dallas, Miami, Vegas) and asks if the impossible reservation is still worth the hype. This is a great review, even if it technically isn’t one. It’s funny, concise, personal, and aggressive. It reflects the Times’ global ambitions while still being extremely New York-y. You should read it, but the tl;dr is that Carbone’s act and food are getting a bit tired-- except in Vegas, where everyone knows they are in showbiz.
Taylor Lorenz’s new Substack highlights Ethos, a new restaurant in Austin that doesn’t really exist. The entire thing, website, chef profiles, and active Instagram account (with 75k followers) are AI-generated. The store is real, though. You can send them money for branded tee shirts and whatnot. It’s sort of in on the joke (the tagline is “home of unreal flavors”), and Lorenz talks to real chefs about why people seem to be so easily fooled into thinking AI slop is real food.
One thing you learn if you read enough about food is how much fraud there is in the supply chain. There's pretty much a 100% chance that some food in your pantry isn’t totally what it says it is. Sarah Derouin writes for Ambrook Research about honey counterfeiting (rampant!) and how the industry is trying to come up with ways to “fingerprint” honey to track it through the supply chain.
Ernie Smith talks about how Starbucks’ new CEO hire shows it probably doesn’t care about being a ‘third place’ anymore.
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Truly great story in Rest of World about Gatoes, a food delivery startup that launched during an Internet blackout in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region. Jibran Gulzar has been through all the normal founder issues, compounded with blackouts, Internet repression, and Indian government-imposed curfews.
I’ve seen and linked to a bunch of Red Lobster stories, but David Segal at the New York Times dropped the definitive history of the company’s decline and fall. It is deeply hard to read something like this and not feel that our current business system is deeply broken. At every step, investors made moves not to build the company up, but to further loot its wounded body at the expense of workers and customers.
Jaya Saxena writes about Salaam Cola and the limits of corporate activism. Really good read.
Eater has an app! The press release said “finally,” but I saw some commentary that Eater had an app a while back (when everyone did!). But this one seems more centered on maps, which could be helpful when traveling. But like all things tech, I hope they are prepared to maintain and support it post-launch. The main takeaway is that I find it charming that Eater and the Irish Beef Board are the only media lists I am on.
New York
Eric Kim dives into the history of (and provides a recipe for) Atlanta’s Korean-American hot wings.
Not including your menu on a website should be a crime.
Scott Lynch reviews Pasta Night, a new neighborhood Italian spot in Prospect Heights. Lynch correctly calls out that it’s kinda hard to get a plate of pasta that scratches that Italian-American-food itch for “a plate of pasta”. This place does.
Robert Sietsema reviews Yuan, a new Szechuan restaurant specializing in whole fish. He uses the review to drop some knowledge about the growing modern Chinese scene in Jersey City.
Ryan Sutton drops a ranking of New York’s 57 best restaurants on his excellent Substack, the Lo Times. Sutton has been chugging along at that thing for a while, and I love his own best-of list as a way to make a bolder statement. He calls Superiority Burger the best restaurant in the city (correct) and his entire write-up is worth a read. I learned new things about places I have been to multiple times!
I haven’t read a Grub Street Diet in a bit and man, Chef Nick Curtola of Four Horsemen eats exactly as well as you think he does. Jesus.
Matthew Schneier reviews Radio Kwara, a tiny Clinton Hill Nigerian restaurant that’s been chugging along for a year without much attention. Schneider talks about chef Ayo Balogun’s history and why places like this don’t get as much attention. The food sounds fantastic and I already added the restaurant soundtrack to my Spotify playlist and have not regretted it.
Los Angeles
I’m not sure I’m totally on board with 101 sprawl, but the Los Angeles Times rolling out 101 best tacos list is *possibly* acceptable. I appreciate that it isn’t ranked. It’s definitely a list that will have you pulling off the freeway for a quick nosh.
*scrolls down* Holy shit they released it as a standalone ZINE? Shut up and take my money.
Bill Addison has a fantastic review of Stir Crazy, a long-time Hollywood coffee shop recently reinvented as a neighborhood hangout and wine bar. There’s a great description of how to do a big wine list well, but mostly read this because of Addison’s opener. He succinctly captures what the best restaurants are really for.
L.A. Taco highlights Molino Komal, Los Angeles’s first craft molino. Taco enthusiasts can pick up freshly ground tortillas, tostadas, or masa by the pound. Don’t make your own masa.
“Well sure,” I often find myself saying, “Los Angeles does a lot of foods better, but New York is hands down the best for West Indian.” Heavy sigh.
A Silver Lake pizza and hot dog joint called “LaSorted” *chefs kiss*
I recently discovered Air Jordan, a food podcast about Los Angeles by Jordan Okun, a former creative exec turned writer. It’s a bit too discursive for my taste, but Jordan and his guests know their stuff. This week’s episode focuses on a meal at RVR, the new restaurant from the chef behind Gjelina. If you are in LA or a real LA fanatic, this is for you.
Boston
Barbara Lynch is closing her remaining restaurants, ending an empire that once defined Boston dining. Lynch has mostly been in the news recently for her personal issues, but it’s hard for me to imagine Boston without her restaurants. Drink was a key driver of the global cocktail resurgence and a place where I personally both fell in love and had my heart broken (different people). B&G Oysters or No. 9 Park feel more like structural supports of Boston culture than restaurants.
Heading up to Salem to celebrate Halloween? (Don’t.) BoMag has you covered on the places to eat and drink. If you must go, take the train.
Deva First profiles Did You Eat Yet?, a Haitian restaurant inside a convenience store near BMC. Mirbentz Jean Francois went from avid home cook to social media mini-star to, finally, restaurateur. First does a great job explaining the different dishes and the piece is accompanied by killer photography.
It’s funny that when I read a bunch of headlines “Boston bagel wins New York bagelfest” I immediately knew which bakery won. That syncs with my overall take on “the best X is actually in Y”: it’s more about the ‘average’ quality of something. The average Los Angeles taco is 10x the quality of a New York one. The average New York bagel is 10x the quality of a Boston one. A single artisan can blow the doors off a dish somewhere else, but that doesn’t change the overall food culture of that city.
Chicago
Of COURSE I’m going to link to a story about a couple trying to find the best Crab Rangoons in Chicago.
Voters in a small portion of Lincoln Square will decide this fall on whether or not to allow alcohol sales in their 20-block area. A 100-year-old law making the area dry is up for repeal. Block Club Chicago has a great history of the law.
John Kessler at Chicago Magazine reviews Feld, the controversial new tasting menu temple from Chef Jake Potashnick. Potashnick built a large TikTok following as he trained and prepared to open his first restaurant. The anticipation has led to pretty harsh criticisms. Kessler says the the 30ish bite tasting menu is trying to do something very ambitious, but there are a lot of misses. This article demonstrates the value of reviews themselves. Kessley outlines what he thinks Potashnick is going for, where he misses, and why he’s still important. He awards Feld 2 out of 4 stars.
A book about Malort? Sure.
Luisa Chu reviews Maxwells Trading, a restaurant that seems best described as Modern Asian with Midwestern influences. This review rambles a bit, as Chu tries to make a statement about Chicago dining and the aging cohort of young guns that she belongs to. However, she doesn’t lose sight of how good the food sounds. A scallion pancake and dips course? A martini bar? Fucking sign me up.
Out of Context J. Gold of the Week
Even when the restaurant is crowded with besuited businessmen gobbling a quick hamburger lunch, you can usually find a few foodie tourists nibbling on the horseradish-tinged potato salad and having a Culinary Experience. - link