The Noosh, The Zume, The Art of War, and more...
Family Meal - Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
Hello Tuesday,
Short one today because American food media is in full-on Thanksgiving mode as annual. I don’t have anything smart to say about the holiday, but I did just delete an exceptionally snarky intro poking fun at a famous food newsletter, so I am thankful for personal growth. And you are welcome.
Let’s get to it…
The Noosh – Per Eater SF’s Eve Batey, after suing and locking out chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz last week, Noosh co-owner John Litz said he planned “to reopen quickly — by Saturday, after just a two-day transition period. As of [yesterday], however, the restaurant remains shuttered, and employees who were scheduled to work this week have been told that they will not be paid as the closure continues.” Local news ABC7 sent a video team to cover a painfully awkward “rally-slash-media-address” outside the restaurant on Friday morning, and Litz sent his best spokesman onto FaceTime to say friendly, reassuring things like, “We’re quite hopeful that people will come back to work. If they don’t come back to work, we’ll find other folks.” Factually true, I’m sure! Also, if anyone dies they’ll replace them, and should there be one or more not-from-the-neighborhood individuals on the sidewalk out front, they will call the cops. PR!
The Investors – Staying in SF, this time via Caleb Pershan, “As locations shuffle, investors in the boozy brunch hotspot [Chubby Noodle] claim they’re being taken for a ride by chef Pete Mrabe.” Mrabe doesn’t come out of this looking great, even beyond the apparently shady business moves (“financial backers are… nervous to confront the chef in part because of a pair of incidents, one in which he allegedly punched a bar owner, and another in which he allegedly destroyed a former associate’s property, then slapped a barista”), but its almost hard to feel sorry for his investors too, one of whom, “contributed more than $50,000 in loans and waived his salary under a verbal agreement that he would receive an ownership stake” (italics mine) and used his mother’s credit cards for expenses (italics mine again)…
Some sad news – TMZ reports restaurateur Harry Morton died Saturday at his home in Beverley Hills. He was 38. “Harry is perhaps best known as the founder of the Pink Taco restaurant chain, which blossomed on the Sunset Strip in L.A. but has since expanded to other cities across the U.S…. His grandfather, Arnie, cofounded the incredibly popular Morton's The Steakhouse chain in 1978, and his dad, Peter, cofounded the Hard Rock Cafe empire in 1971. Harry worked at HRC for years, and later headed up the business's development wing…. He’s also the owner of the Hollywood nightclub the Viper Room.” (Apologies in advance for all the TMZ ephemera at that link.)
The Media – Headline in The Drinks Business: “MICHELIN GUIDE ACQUIRES THE WINE ADVOCATE.” Details from Rupert Millar: “Michelin bought a 40% stake in the publication in 2017 and formally announced its total acquisition at a press conference on Friday.” Press release gobbledygook: “This full integration will ensure the long-term synergies between oenology and gastronomy through the pursuit of experiences based on food and wine pairing, as well as the creation of new digital content and services.” Such modalities!
The Opportunity – Tell the rising college juniors, seniors, and grad students in your lives: “The James Beard Foundation, with support from the Gannett Foundation, is launching a new media fellowship program to train students from underrepresented minority backgrounds to be food and drinks journalists. The fellows would be expected to commit to at least 2 days a week [Jan-March] in the Beard Foundation offices in Manhattan, and would be developing short- and long-form editorial content while being overseen by the Foundation's media department, and mentored by Jamila Robinson, who is a member of the Journalism committee of the Beard Awards.” Applications open 12/2 - 12/20. Details and form here.
That Enterprise $$$ – Headline in Recode: “Why a robot pizza startup could be worth $4 billion.” Answer in Recode: Because the robot pizza startup in question, Zume, is not a robot pizza startup anymore… “The four-year-old company has largely pivoted to an enterprise model where it works with restaurants that have no storefront and prepare their food in shared centralized kitchens, or ‘cloud kitchens’; with delivery providers like DoorDash and Postmates; and with existing pizza companies to build a hub-and-spoke model for the entire delivery industry. The company has been trying to morph into a data and logistics provider, part of an effort by founder Alex Garden to become ‘the Amazon of food.’” Recode story from Theodore Schleifer, but that last link goes to one of the funniest Forbes articles I’ve ever read. Actual intro line: “I view business in the way Sun Tsu viewed war.”
To be fair, same, but with newsletters and Thomas Paine.
And that’s it for today. Short and vaguely bitter, as promised.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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 long-term synergies between oenology and gastronomy 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!