How I'm Spending My Subtropical Summer Not Vacationing
Links to my recent articles and what I've been up to lately
Greetings from Brooklyn, where the climate has now been classified as subtropical!
I hope everyone is finding ways to stay cool.
The lichen has returned to my metal fire escape this summer for the second year in a row. I’ve noticed it because I just completed a massive run of editorial assignments written from my desk that is wedged in a corner right next to it.
This welcome flurry of productivity, one I am extremely grateful to have (especially since some of the work was a welcome stretch outside my comfort zone!). But these deadlines in quick succession have meant that I haven’t had a chance to work on an interview I have been hoping to bring you, but I’ll get it to you soon. Meanwhile, at least you have this one.
Look, in the scheme of things none of these topics are the stuff of journalism that will get me summarily canceled by a network for “financial reasons” (I can’t wait to see how Stephen Colbert plays the next 10 months out), or so woke that they’ll provoke the disruption of necessary access to public broadcast systems and withhold nourishment and medicine to starving nations but, here is what has been published so far:
Restaurant Dive
On redesigning kids’ menus (I know. I have RANGE people…)
Little bites, big ideas: Rethinking kids’ menus for today’s tiny diners | Restaurant Dive
Winning menus go beyond chicken fingers and hot dogs, chefs say, to offer customizable, healthy and globally inspired fare.
On casual dining redesign
Casual, not careless: The art of relaxed dining design | Restaurant Dive
If casual brands don’t invest in the contemporary, experiential offerings diners crave, they could eventually risk ceding traffic to fast casual competitors.
Food Dive
On innovations in the non-alcoholic spirits category (did I mention range?)
Casual, not careless: The art of relaxed dining design | Restaurant Dive
If casual brands don’t invest in the contemporary, experiential offerings diners crave, they could eventually risk ceding traffic to fast casual competitors.
Food & Wine
This is the first article to be published in a series of three so far revisiting cocktail basics with fresher takes, and with hopefully more to come
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When to Shake, When to Stir, and Why It Matters
Shaken or stirred? The right choice depends on your ingredients, and it can make or break the drink. Elevate your bartending skills by understanding why some cocktails are shaken and others are stirred, and when to break the rules.
In addition there are two book ideas, one fiction, one not, neither of them cocktails (though adjacent) that I am still looking for representation to work on, though I am now getting close…
There’s other stuff too. I’ll talk about it when I can.
I can’t thank my subscribers enough for sticking with me. As always I extend my eternal gratitude along with a call to tell your friends and loved ones if you like what you read.
However, if you have only a small budget for your media diet, at this time I strongly urge donations to your favorite public TV and radio stations, who will soon be forced to make drastic staff cuts and likely go dark, mostly in rural areas where local reporting and emergency broadcast systems are vital. Here is NPR CEO Kathryn Maier explaining the possible fallout of the funding cutoff.
Be kind to one another. I’ll be back soon!