Hello Friday,
Friends, I am as bleary-eyed and delirious as you. This is a key race alert. Please bear with me.
As usual, Tuesday’s Family Meal is copy / pasted below for the Friday crowd. If you’d like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
Let’s get to it…
The Results – “Proposition 22, the richly funded measure backed by gig companies [including all the top restaurant delivery apps] seeking to keep their workers as independent contractors, was passed by California voters Tuesday night.” Caroline Said has the details in the SF Chronicle. So far it looks like a bit of a blowout, and the NYT’s county-by-county map shows opposition was focused almost entirely in the Bay Area (including places where rideshare company corporate staff live and work) and northern CA, while the rest of the state gave a resounding, “Yea.”
NB: The tech CEOs are already talking about taking that momentum nationwide. Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi told the Washington Post’s Faiz Siddiqui, “Going forward, you’ll see us more loudly advocating for…. laws like Prop 22,” while DoorDash CEO Tony Xu wrote in his blog, “Now is the time to push forward… across the country, and DoorDash is committed to leading that effort.”
Gosh, I wonder if there will be any newly available political consultants around to help?
The Fallout – Following up on her previous reporting, the NYT’s Julia Moskin says, “Seven members of the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas, an elite body of wine professionals, have been suspended from all court activities, and another has resigned after a New York Times report last week on the group’s longtime pattern of sexual harassment and conflicts of interest.” Moskin says the men (all named in her article) will face an internal investigation.
On another side of this story, a Chronicle headline reads: “Nation's top women sommeliers demand revolutionary change after sexual misconduct claims rock wine world.” Esther Mobley has reactions / plans from people like Rebecca Fineman (Ungrafted, SF), Elizabeth Huettinger (Mayacamas winery in Napa), June Rodil (Goodnight Hospitality group in Texas), and Sara Floyd (Swirl Wine Broker, Oakland). Key question: Resign in protest, or stay and have a say in change? (Cc James Beard committee members…)
P.S. – Bit of geopolitical wine intrigue this week via Su-Lin Tan in the SCMP: “China may impose an anti-dumping duty of more than 200 per cent on Australian wine as soon as next week – a move that would effectively kick Australian wine brands out of the Chinese market as exporters are still reeling from the news this week of a possible outright ban on wine and other Australian products... Australia is the largest exporter of wine to China, ahead of France and Chile… China’s imports of Australian wine more than doubled to 120 million litres in 2019 from 56 million litres in 2015.” Be interesting to see where all that wine goes, and at what price…
That “Neighborhood” Ghost $$$ – Headline in TechCrunch: “REEF Technology raises $700M from SoftBank and others to remake parking lots.” Story from Jonathan Shieber: “The bulk of the company’s revenue is coming from its parking business, but… REEF already operates more than 100 neighborhood kitchens across more than 20 markets in North America, and that number will only grow as the company expands its regional footprint. It’s hosting virtual kitchens from celebrity chefs like David Chang’s Fuku, and, according to the company, offering lifelines to beloved local restaurateurs like the chain Jack’s Wife Freda in New York or Michelle Bernstein’s kitchens in Miami.”
In other news, hundreds of mid-level lot managers are suddenly in the restaurant industry. Once relegated to the unsexy (if lucrative) parking business, they may now have the power to comp dates a fried chicken sandwich from the back of a windowless production kitchen trailer. What a world.
Awards Season – They cancelled the 2020 restaurants list, but 50 Best went forward with their bars version yesterday. The US spots in the top 50 are Dante, Attaboy, Nomad Bar, Katana Kitten, and Employees Only. No need to cite locations one by one, because… it’s all NYC in the top 50. Further down the list are Café La Trova (Miami), Dead Rabbit (NYC), Pacific Cocktail Haven (SF), Trick Dog (SF), Kumiko (Chicago), Death&Co (NYC), and Amor y Amargo (NYC). Lawsuits and recounts pending.
Some sad news – Another heartbreaking pandemic obituary from Alex Traub in the NYT yesterday: “Tony Stempeck, Guardian of a Restaurant’s Legacy, Dies at 63. He spent much of his life training to run [Casale’s Halfway Club] the venerable Nevada red-sauce joint founded by his grandparents. Weeks after taking over, he died of Covid-19… After the death of Mr. Stempeck’s mother, [his daughter Haley Kramer] ordered business cards for him inscribed with her old title: owner-operator. They arrived the day Mr. Stempeck died.”
And in SF, Mission Local’s Julian Mark reports, “Sylvie Le Mer, owner of storied creperie Ti Couz, dies at 60.” Favorite anecdote from a tragic obit: “When Marco Senghor, the owner of Bissap Baobab, first arrived in the Mission in the ’90s, Le Mer helped him get on his feet when he was just in the business of selling juice. Every day, she would buy seven gallons of his orange juice.”
The Opportunity – Both Eater Boston and Eater Las Vegas have put out the call for more freelancers this week. Haven’t checked all the other sites, but if you’ve been thinking about writing, the iron might be hot…
For Design Fans – Check out the Wonho Frank Lee photospread on Gigi’s in Eater LA. I’ll let an art critic weigh in on the actual painting — perfect background color for the space; some intentionally rough, asymmetrical business I can’t quite get into for some reason — but I do love a wraparound mural, and am glad they went with those flying nun sconces instead of the standard double lampshades or whatever. No dig at a classic double lampshade(!), but nice to switch it up a bit if you’re going with the trendy green booths below. Right? Right.
And that’s it for today.
I’ll see paying subscribers here Tuesday for next Family Meal, and everyone else on Friday, by which time Nevada will be almost done counting.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and send tips and/or wine and other Australian products 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 copy/paste of the Family Meal that went out Tuesday to paying subscribers. If you’d also like to get Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
Hello Tuesday,
And hello, paying subscribers only! If you’re getting this as a forward and wish you also got Tuesdays’ on Tuesdays…
Before we get started: I’m exhausted and stressed and don’t feel like I’ve been doing my best work lately (including here), and am sending all my best to everyone feeling the same way. But also… I have to say it. It’s impossible to avoid. Please bear with me. I’m so sorry.
VOTE!
Let’s get to it…
The Relief – Unfortunately, per Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman (the stimulus spotters at Politico Playbook) whatever happens today: “COVID relief negotiations are dead for the time being. There’s little hope that post-election there will be a catalyst that could spur Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin back to the negotiating table in short order to actually work out a deal.” RESTAURANTS Act 2021?
The Proposition – Even if you’re not in CA, spare a thought for Prop 22 on the ballot there tonight. Here’s a cogent little rundown / refresher from Nathaniel Rakich on FiveThirtyEight: “Proposition 22 is likely to go down as the first battle in a nationwide war over regulating the gig economy. In 2019, California passed a major law designed to give protections to gig workers by reclassifying them as employees, but in response, companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash quickly filed [Prop 22] to exempt themselves from the law…. More money has been spent on this ballot measure than any other in California history… Perhaps presaging a new frontier of campaigning, [the tech companies have] also controversially used their apps to push pro-Prop 22 messages to customers and drivers alike. All that advertising may be having the desired effect, though: Prop 22 has appeared to gain support over the course of the fall. Recent surveys show the measure leading, but they disagree about whether it’s a close race.” Helpful links and citations included throughout that piece, FYI.
The Chains – Let’s take a quick step away from our usual coverage for a check on the highway signs, shall we? “Friendly’s restaurant chain filed for Chapter 11 protection Sunday, joining a list of other chains declaring bankruptcy. Pizza Hut*, Chuck E. Cheese, Le Pain Quotidien have all filed for bankruptcy since the pandemic started. But some chains are booming during COVID-19. Chipotle, for example, said it plans to hire 10,000 more workers.” Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour has the painfully obvious / obviously painful conclusion here: “Basically if there’s a restaurant chain whose food you love to eat but you don’t really care where you eat it, it’s probably doing well. The places where you like to hang out are probably in some trouble.” Oof. “Some Trouble” sounds like what happens to the pigs who don’t have a spider for a friend in an EB White book.
*Correction here (Edited November 9): NRN’s Bret Thorn tells me that “Pizza Hut didn’t declare bankruptcy; one of its franchisees, NPC International, did.” Thorn has those details here.
The End of an Era – In Portland, OR, “Pok Pok, the restaurant group known for its Thai street food and Northern Thai dishes, closed most of its locations earlier this year, with the expectation that the original location on SE Division and one Pok Pok Wing might reopen down the line. Friday morning, however, owner Andy Ricker announced on Facebook that the restaurant group was done.” Details via Alex Frane in Eater.
The Fire Country – Waiting in line? Take some time to scroll through this wide look at the last five years of fire in CA wine country from J.D. Morris and Esther Mobley in the SF Chronicle. “Since 2015, fires have blackened more than 60% of Lake County, wiped out whole neighborhoods in Sonoma County and ruined wineries and resorts in the Napa Valley, repeatedly turning one of the country’s prized destinations into a siren-filled disaster scene…. Yet these annual catastrophes cannot fully define life in Wine Country, a region rich in natural beauty where viticulture has deep roots. Not far from where Six Sigma is growing, another Lake County wine estate, Guenoc Ranch, is seeking permits to build a resort on 25 square miles of land that would include five boutique hotels, a golf course and upward of 400 luxury homes.”
And if you’re too distracted for a longread today, at minimum you should skim down to the incredible Santiago Mejia before/after photos of Coffey Park being rebuilt. That bright, new plywood set against the charred cul-de-sac earth had me taking the lord’s name in vain out loud while dining solo in a quiet, crowded restaurant this afternoon.
And last but certainly not least: These Last 4 Years – I only leave you with this because I know the various feelings it may dredge up in some of you will be washed away by other news today, but literally the only thing in food media this week that was able to push politics out of my mind entirely for a few minutes or so was this photo on Instagram from Laurie Woolever. It’s Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, and the caption is “Election Day, 2016, promoting APPETITES on THE CHEW. Feels like 20 minutes and 200 years ago.” Wanna feel old…
And that’s it for today. Remember, if your side wins, you are allowed to celebrate as long as you’re on my side. And anyone on our side who says we can’t celebrate is not worth listening to for at least 24 hours.
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 Some Pig 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!