NYT saves, NRA muddles, Esquire lists, Newsom own goals, Big Media hires, and more...
Family Meal - Friday, November 20, 2020
Hello Friday,
Quick reminder that Tuesday’s Family Meal is copy / pasted below for those who missed it, and today that copy / paste today is sponsored once again by the good people at BentoBox:
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Let’s get to it…
What Washington is (maybe) Reading – Causality is always hard to prove, but… After being called out in Family Meal last week for publishing an editorial calling for a pause on indoor dining with almost no mention of federal aid for restaurants, the New York Times Editorial Board both changed the headline of that editorial (to make it more about keeping schools open), and followed up with a new imperative yesterday: “Save America’s Restaurants.”
Quoth the board: “What the public interest requires for now is a suspension of indoor dining in areas where the virus is spreading, combined with federal aid to keep restaurants in business… The resurgence of the virus is again disrupting economic activity, and in the absence of federal aid, the harsh reality is that many restaurants are not going to survive. There is nothing to be gained by waiting until January, or by refusing to reach agreement where agreement appears possible. Congress may not be able to do the big things, but this is a clear chance to do something. Save the nation’s restaurants — and save lives.”
Agreed, and glad to see this shared widely! But still looks like the biggest problem facing the $120B RESTAURANTS Act is the fact that it is currently handcuffed to all the other aid ideas trying to get through Congress (money for hospitals, local governments, etc. - the “big things”), and until there’s a grand bargain or a sharp decoupling, my optimism wanes.
And then there’s the small problem of the message being muddled by the other side of this, which is where lots of restaurants are lobbying not to get paid to close, but to be allowed to reopen. My Google Alert for “restaurant lawsuit” shows there are currently restaurants and/or restaurant groups suing their local governments to stop shutdowns in St. Louis, Michigan, Cleveland, and Grass Valley among many others. And Robb Report’s Jeremy Repanich reports that, “On Tuesday, the National Restaurant Association sent a letter telling governors to not make restaurants the scapegoats for the current Covid-19 surge. In the letter, the organization states that there’s no scientific evidence tying restaurants to rising infections, while also making the fallacious argument that restaurants are just like other retail establishments and should be treated as such.”
So… as such not exactly a cogent argument for $120B in federal aid.
The Lists – “Yes, we did it. We put together an Esquire Best New Restaurants list in the middle of a global pandemic. This may lead you to ask a couple of questions. For instance: How? And why?” That’s lead author Jeff Gordinier, and his how answer is they did a lot of work before the shutdowns and then drove instead of flying after that (missing all of Texas and probably several other states in the meantime…. Sorry, second most populous state in the union!). The why answer is “an expression of support—love, really—for the chefs and bartenders and servers and dishwashers and maître d’s.”
Bah humbug to the editor who resisted going with “—love, actually—” in late November, but congrats to:
Kalaya (Philadelphia), Leah & Louise (Charlotte), Mokyo (NYC), Nihao (Baltimore), Bells (Los Alamos, CA), Indo (St. Louis), Zhug (Cleveland), Pasjoli (LA), da Toscana (NYC), Fox and Pearl (Kansas City), Piccolina (DC), Albi / Yellow (DC), Le Crocodile (NYC), Prubechu (SF), Goosefeather (Tarrytown), Balkan Treat Box (St. Louis), Found Oyster (LA), Palm City (SF), Porto (Chicago), Fieldtrip (NYC), Nami Nori (NYC), Adarra (Richmond), and Pizza, Fried Chicken, Ice Cream (Chicago).
And congrats also to Omar Tate (Chef of the Year), Paola Velez (Pastry Chef of the Year), Armani Johnson (Rising Star of the Year), Madeline Maldonado (Beverage Director of the Year), and more…
The Hypocritic Oath – Dateline Napa: “FOX 11 obtained exclusive photos on Tuesday night of Governor Gavin Newsom allegedly eating at The French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California at a dinner party he attended on November 6 not following his own COVID-19 protocols he set forth for the state.” Italics mine, but that’s not all.. Reporters Bill Melugin and Shelly Insheiwat report, “A closer look reveals that Janus Norman a top lobbyist for the California Medical Association who is sitting right next to Governor Newsom. On Newsom's other side is the CEO of the California Medical Association Dustin Corcoran.” Great work, guys! Pass the bong water!
The Media – Some big hires at some big papers this week: The Washington Post is “excited to announce that Aaron Hutcherson is joining Features as a writer and recipe developer for Voraciously.” On top of recipes, the announcement says Hutcherson will be writing “occasional profiles, trend pieces and other feature stories.” Drop your profile hint-hints to @thehungryhutch on Twitter and Instagram.
And the NYT is “delighted to announce that Nikita Richardson and Tanya Sichynsky, two extraordinary talents, are joining Food and NYT Cooking as senior staff editors. They will become part of our team of story and recipe editors on the desk and help produce all aspects of the Food report and NYT Cooking.” Tips for PR flattery: Richardson (Twitter; Instagram) plays violin in the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra, and Sichynsky (Twitter; Instagram) is a newsletter editor, so probably just tell her you read this.
Congrats, all!
And last but not least: For Design Fans – Lots of slideshows to click around on the Australia / New Zealand Eat Drink Design Awards site this week, but my three highlights are the farmhouse pass with the textured glass at Lilian in Auckland; the black wood vaulted ceiling at Osteria Tedesca (is that a tall detached faucet fixture in photo #9?); and the early-century modern(?) vanities in the bathroom at Poodle Bar & Bistro (wait, is that the same tall detached faucet fixture?!). Could 2021 be the year of the detached pipe/faucet? Maybe! Very exciting!
I, for one, cannot wait to find out everything about 2021.
And that’s it for today.
Because Thanksgiving usually means a pause on most of (my kind) of food media, there will probably be only one newsletter next week, which I will send out to everyone (paying or not) on Tuesday. So…
I’ll see you here Tuesday for next family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or love, really to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!
Oh, and check out the Family Meal store!
Here begins the copy/paste of the Family Meal that went out Tuesday, November 17th, to paying subscribers. If you’d also like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
Reminder: Today’s copy/paste is sponsored by BentoBox.
DoorDash files, Chicago caps, Eater hires, Escárcega fires back, and more...
Hello Tuesday,
And hello paying subscribers only! If you’re getting this as a forward and would like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
Welp. We have officially reached a stage where almost all of food media is either reporting / debating shutdowns, or discussing Thanksgiving. Case in point: The entirety of WaPo Food yesterday was given over to the latter, except for one lone article about outdoor dining, in which Tom Sietsema got the Finnish ambassador to the United States to define “Kalsarikannit” as simply, “A drink. At home. In your underwear.” Quite the cozy little definition, changed only slightly by a tilt of the head, a quick grin, and a bit of extra emphasis on “your.”
Anyway… Heavy on tech and media today.
Let’s get to it…
That Delivery $$$ – In advance its coming IPO, DoorDash has finally filed its long anticipated S-1 disclosure form with the SEC. Expedite’s Kristen Hawley has a smart breakdown here, bulleted via key takeaways like: After raising (and losing) shedloads of money, “Turns out the company is still sitting on over $1 billion of the $2.5 billion it’s raised.” And “[DoorDash] has spent huge amounts of cash to acquire new customers. In 2019, it spent $581 million on marketing expenses but also $176 million on refunds and credits and $182 million in promotions, pushing DoorDash close to spending $1 billion to attract new business that year.”
One big point from Hawley: “DoorDash acknowledges that its future success hinges on the success of merchants and restaurants, broadly. (‘This risk is particularly pronounced with restaurants,’ the filing reads.) Uber’s S-1 a few years ago said the same, but basically: without sustainable restaurants there is no sustainable restaurant delivery. In recent months, most of us have been thinking about this the other way, it’s impossible not to. Without third party delivery’s money and platform, restaurants might not make it through 2020. Let’s take this moment to remember that pandemic life isn’t forever life, and the relationship between business and technology/logistics provider is symbiotic.”
NB: I think that’s mostly right, but will note that even though it costs money to acquire and onboard new restaurants, the truth is DoorDash — especially in its nebulous position in the middle of the money — has a symbiotic relationship with the concept of restaurantS, but not necessarily your restaurant. To quote Donald Trump, the plywood goes up, the plywood comes down: “It may not be the same restaurant, it may not be the same ownership, but they’ll all be back.” To quote Henry Hill: “Business bad? …” (I kid, I kid. Don’t sue, don’t sue.)
Meanwhile: Those Delivery Caps – Per Ashok Selvam and Naomi Waxman in Eater Chicago, “Chicago’s City Council revealed its latest try to cap what Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash charge restaurants. Council members are proposing a 15-percent cap to limit what third-party couriers charge restaurants for delivery services.” The council tried this earlier in the pandemic, but “blames lobbyists for convincing members to kill the first proposal…. Policymakers were debating on when the [new] ordinance would sunset. Making the ordinance permanent would make any proposal more vulnerable to a third-party lawsuit.”
Side note: Could newly legal drug sales make it easier for cities to keep restaurants closed this winter? I’m no expert on municipal budget issues, but I do know that there has been at least a little shared fiscal pain between restaurants and local governments due to drops in restaurant sales tax during COVID shutdowns. Now, some local governments, including Chicago, are making up for missing revenue by doing what anyone with good connections might do in hard times: Selling weed.
“Buoyed by higher than expected marijuana revenues, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Saturday canceled plans to lay off 350 city employees… Revenues generated by the sale of recreational and medical marijuana have ‘gone through the roof’— topping $100 million statewide for the first time in October and $800 million in the first 10 months.” Details via Fran Spielman in the Sun-Times.
The Media – Eater NY named Bao Ong as its new editor yesterday, filling the vacancy created when Serena Dai moved to take over the SF Chronicle food section this summer. Ong comes to Eater from Time Out. Loads of past articles on Muck Rack here for reference. Links here for Instagram and Twitter, where he describes himself as a “Tennis fanatic. Vietnamese-speaking Midwesterner. Slowly learning French.” Xin chúc mừng! Congratulations! Félicitations! Federer!
And last but not least: The Critics – LA Times critic Patricia Escárcega called out the paper on Twitter this week for refusing to pay her a fair wage. She says that after filing a discrimination complaint six months ago, she finally received an answer from corporate: “The letter says I deserve to make only two-thirds of what my co-critic is paid -- even though we have the exact same job responsibilities -- because I do not bring prestige to the paper, and because the company says our job classifications aren't the same.” The full thread is worth a read. Escárcega’s co-critic, Bill Addison, weighed in on her behalf, as did other big names across criticdom like Ruth Reichl, Soleil Ho, Tejal Rao, Ryan Sutton, Tim Carman, and more.
Asked for comment, paying LA Times subscriber (and big name in newsletterdom) Andrew Genung did his best impression of John Malkovitch doing his best impression of a Russian gangster card shark and replied simply, “Pay her. Pay that woman her money.”
And that’s it for today.
I’ll see you here Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or higher than expected marijuana revenues to andrew@thisfamilymeal.com. If you like Family Meal and want to keep it going, please chip in here. If you got this as a forward, sign up for yourself!