Resy PSAs, CBC MIAs, Fox Gruel, and more...
Resy PSAs, CBC MIAs, Fox Gruel, and more...
Family Meal - Friday, February 3, 2023
Hello Friday,
And hello from a newly “reopened” Hong Kong, where the tourism bureau has put together this inspiring video to let you know that we are all dancing mask-free down Pottinger Street these days! Very cool, because just walking down Pottinger Street without a mask is still very illegal! I mean, it’s not CBD-is-basically-heroin illegal (also suddenly true here!), but it’s still $600 USD fine illegal.
Still, come visit! Apparently there are hundreds of thousands of free roundtrip flights here up for grabs! I’ll skip down Pottinger with you! We can let our masks hang down under our chins like wildfolk!
You’re holding the CBD though.
Tuesday’s paid version is copy/pasted below as usual.
Let’s get to it…
The Public Service – This week felt a little like food media was in PSA mode, at least in NYC (and, cynically… maybe just SEO mode?). Eater was all in on how to know, love, and use Resy, with Eater NY’s Robert Sietsema and Emma Orlow explaining how Resy and its restaurant clients use all that data they’re collecting these days. (Nothing groundbreaking, but scroll down to the grey box for basic info. The most dangerously interesting to guests might be how restaurants “plan their books around [chronic no-shows] and even can overbook themselves intentionally, banking on a certain person to cancel last-minute and open up seats.”)
At the same time, Ryan Sutton explained how to get seemingly impossible reservations (Resy Notify!), and Luke Fortney had “How Resy Won”, which sort of makes that case, but feels a bit more like a lamentation of reservations vs spontaneity in general?
And then there’s NY Mag with the piece servers around the country will be sharing most over the next few days… The Grubstreet staff answers the big question, “What should you tip?” with big numbers: “At restaurants, the previous range of socially acceptable and ethically expected tips was 15 to 20 percent; now, it’s 20 to 25. This goes for whether you’re at an Olive Garden or I Sodi and whether you liked the service or not.” And maybe on bottled water too? Congrats, FOH!
Meanwhile, that purest of public service sites, Tripadvisor, has once again been scammed. Headline on the CBC: “Montreal's No. 1 restaurant on Tripadvisor didn't really exist.”
Or so the Canadians would have us believe…
Some Sad News – In food media, “Barbara Hansen, a James Beard award winner and one of the first food writers to bring attention to international cuisines in Los Angeles through her work at the LA Times, died Sunday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Hansen was 90 years old and still active, writing on her blog and posting recipes on Instagram up until the end of her life.” Bill Esparza wrote about Hansen’s life and influence for Eater here.
And for the somm: “Donald M. Hess, a business magnate, avid art collector and the founder of one of the country’s most recognized wine brands, died peacefully Sunday at his home in Bern, Switzerland. He was 86. Hess founded his eponymous winery, Hess Collection Winery, now called Hess Persson Estates, 45 years ago. He was a leader in both sustainability and hospitality — known for infusing wine with art — in Napa Valley and abroad.” Jess Lander has that obituary in the SF Chronicle.
The Podcast – Despite a spotty connection causing a bit of a delay, Expedite’s Kristen Hawley and I are back with another Restaurant Week podcast this week! We talk dining sheds, Crypto Culinary Clubs, Yelp data, Square data, and more. Listen on Expedite here (with an Apple Podcasts option), or right here:
And last but not least: The Fox Chef – Throughout the pandemic, I kept a close eye on a chef it felt like food media I was following wasn’t paying any attention to: Andrew Gruel of Slapfish. Maybe Slapfish itself wasn’t all that interesting to the national food conversation, but while some of you weren’t looking, Gruel became the go-to chef representing the restaurant industry to conservative audiences on Fox News and Twitter. MSNBC and CNN had Tom Colicchio, José Andrés, and Andrew Zimmern on speed dial, but search “Andrew Gruel Fox News” and you’ll see they’ve had him on prime time shows for everything from COVID policies to inflation to the “war on gas stoves.” And in the meantime, he’s amassed almost 200k Twitter followers through witty banter like asking about yesterday’s Chinese spy balloon headlines: “Did anyone ask the balloon its pronouns?”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Anyway, that guy. That guy is opening a new spot named Calico Fish House in — you guessed it, CA readers — Huntington Beach, where, per Restaurant Hospitality’s Holly Petre, everything is going to be “locally and responsibly sourced, the meats come from small farms, and the produce is from Melissa’s Produce, a wholesaler based in Los Angeles. Calico only serves farmed seafood that has been certified sustainable by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.”
He hates woke culture. He loves sustainable aquaculture. What does this mean for the culture? I don’t know, but it’s… interesting. (Maybe this has been a pitch, editors? Send me to Huntington for the profile treatment. I’m on the case!)
And that’s it for today! Except of course for Tuesday’s paid edition which is copy/pasted below as usual. If you’d like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays too…
I’ll see paying subscribers back here Tuesday, and everyone else on Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or a certain person to cancel last-minute and open up seats 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!
Here begins the Family Meal that went out to paying subscribers on Tuesday, January 31st, 2023:
Paris gone, Minting paused, Meredith down, Eater reporting, and more....
Hello Tuesday,
A quick one today.
Let’s get right to it…
Remember Paris? – Outdoor dining sheds were supposed to ignite a brand new relationship with outdoor dining, and critics like Steve Cuozzo of the NY Post were supposed to be wrong about their longterm viability. But no, dressed like the Joker in full gloat, Cuozzo took a victory lap last week: “The sheds they are a-crumblin’ — and the sooner they all do, the better.
New York City’s street-based dining structures are quietly going the way of ‘show your vaccination card’ at some of the hottest and most famous of eating establishments, a Post survey found. It’s about time!”
As evidence he says, “Sheds recently came down without fanfare at premier spots including Buddakan, Keen’s Steakhouse, Locanda Verde, BLT Prime, Tao Downtown, Tsuru TonTan and Cellini. This despite construction costs of up to $100,000.”
Reasons vary from general decay to staffing issues to doubt over the city’s regulatory future, but the gist is this system wasn’t built to last.
Remember Crypto Culinary Club? – Just a few weeks ago a roster of a dozen top chefs and The Chairman himself, Mark Dascasos (and family!) were getting ready to mint NFTs granting access to “The most exclusive fine dining club in the world.” Now, minting is paused, roles have been reshuffled (Dascasos’s son Kapono went from Founder and CEO last week to just Founder today, among other changes), and the Twitter account has been quiet all weekend.
Good luck, all?
The Media – Layoffs continue to hit food media, with publisher Dotdash Meredith cutting 7% of its staff last week, including Food & Wine features editor Nina Friend who said on Instagram, “a fucking fabulous 5+ years ended abruptly this past week, when I was laid off along with 274 of my @dotdashmeredith colleagues.”
And last but not least: Remember Eater? – Expedite’s Kristen Hawley and I talked a bit last week about what the future might hold for Eater after recent Vox layoffs and restructuring. Welp, it sure looks like recipes and home cooking will be sticking around for a bit. The top story on the national site today: A Better Way to Cutlet.
Post-cuts? Cutlets!
And that’s it for today!
I’ll see you all back here Friday for next Family Meal.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or a better way to cutlet 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!