There’s a difference between a hot block and a neighborhood.
A new publication wants you to reimagine how you consume restaurant and travel media.
Good morning everyone. Yesterday, I had a rare free hour in the middle of the day so I went to the Union Square farmer’s market, which I haven’t done in months. I bought one of almost everything from Lani’s Farms, and I’m now addicted to their Moo Radish kimchi.
Thank you everyone who took the time to read the spring break accounts from Feed Me’s youngest readers. If you didn’t get a change to read them, each one is about the length of a five-stop subway ride. One reader commented, “Looks like everyone's spring break from every time. I have faith in the upcoming generation. We might not have a long cultural heritage in this country...but Spring Break is one that transcends time and generations. It's a cultural relic that should be discussed more in history textbooks and quizzed on AP World and Society tests.”
Young, online, and sunburnt.
This morning, I introduced a project that Feed Me has been working on for the last few months. I sent six college students on their spring break trips with disposable cameras, and a brief guideline on how I hoped they’d recap their vacations.
Today’s letter includes: a travel recommendation app gives Substack a spin, Dov Charney returns to New York City (I sense some of you are former American Apparel employees…), there’s a movie about the house where Tina Brown got married, the red carpet nipple ban in Cannes, and all the ways to get drunk on a plane.
✈️ Have you been a victim of the chaos at Newark airport? Feed Me’s Anonymous Transit reporter wants to talk to you. Text our hotline to have an anonymous conversation with him: (646) 494-3916 ✈️
Is there a publication you implicitly trust with restaurant recommendations?
The New York Times and Feed Me both published review of Four Twenty Five this year.
Here’s what The Times said: “It’s food that doesn’t just please, it woos. Four Twenty Five’s dishes go out of their way to meet you where you are before they lead you somewhere else. And just so no one is left out, most of the dishes are available at both dinner and lunch.”
Here’s what Feed Me’s semi-anonymous restaurant critic
said: “Everything at Four Twenty Five is so overspiced, that at a point you lose sight of it, and it all circles back to just being bland. What does flavor even mean, when you’ve been hit over the head with it one million times? The undercooked sweetpea tortellini was a welcome reprieve. The pasta was bordering on raw, but I was happy to chew on some simple dough for a moment.”There are people I trust. More than once, I’ve changed plans to visit a restaurant that Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak mention on their podcast (I had a solo dinner at Koya last week for this reason, and I’m still doing reverse math to figure out if I could’ve made the burger they posted from The Plimsoll happen while I was in London. I remind myself it isn’t going anywhere).
In terms of writing about food, and not just reviewing restaurants, I enjoy
and I wish there was a version of it in the US. I’m excited by what is doing. has built something interesting. surprises me occasionally with a line that is so poignant and direct about the state of things. And of course, there’s my beloved . It’s becoming harder for industry publications to do it for me, and I admit that part of it is because I’m spending more and more time on Substack. That being said, Chris Crowley is really fucking good at his job.Over the weekend, I was sitting in my parents’ backyard and came across a newsletter written by
for a publication called , described as “A literary newsletter featuring original travel writing, under the editorial direction of Eddie Huang.” After a bit of digging, I learned this newsletter is in partnership with Places, an invite-only travel and discovery app from the same company as Raya. I’d never heard of it.This morning, they published a piece about Two Bridges, a neighborhood in downtown New York.
“There’s a difference between a hot block that everyone descends on and a neighborhood. It’s easy to get a block hot, especially with the algorithm. There’s a formula, a mood board, and it’s literally just playing developer wack-a-mole. No one on a hot block lives within 3 blocks. These people are simply thirsty Vampires of Resy searching for Orange Wine before dawn.”
Eddie has his own newsletter so I was curious why he decided to work with Places on a second one. I texted him and asked how the whole thing came about.