A giant American flag that covers a full football field costs $6,900 to rent for a game.

Remember that great moment in Looking for a Ship when a sailor seethes at hearing a "storm has gone safely out to sea"? Turns out racism doesn't end at the shoreline either; TFS reports today on what Black seafood professionals have experienced in the industry: thefoodsection.com/racism-was-i...

It's annual report day at @thefoodsection.bsky.social! Brass tacks: We're ending the year with a $5K shortfall that we'd love to shrink before the start of our fifth anniversary year. Fortunately, TFS subscriptions make great gifts! thefoodsection.com/tfs-releases...

Seems like Talon could be a star on the J-school circuit. www.newsobserver.com/news/state/n...

I know I'm notorious for saying every story is a food story, but dollar stores really are where rural America shops for groceries--for reasons outlined in this insightful and maddening investigation of another company picking the pockets of our nation's poorest consumers.

After shrimp fraud allegations rocked the Southern restaurant scene, @thefoodsection.bsky.social took a closer look. Our verdict? Diners can stop worrying about being hoodwinked—and start thinking about how the promotional campaign behind the scandal played out. thefoodsection.com/opening-the-...

Lucky parents! As @thefoodsection.bsky.social reported a few football seasons back, recruitment's all about wining and dining the moms. thefoodsection.com/the-mother-o...

You can count on @poynterinstitute.bsky.social to do journalism right! Touched that @amariscastillo.bsky.social called @thefoodsection.bsky.social's ABC evaluator, mortgage broker Kodaah Hansen (pictured here 20 years ago, when he was in Big Brothers with my husband.) www.poynter.org/business-wor...

It's not every Monday that I get to use the terms "gender parity" and "blackened salmon" in the same subhed. Thanks, Steve!

As David W. Brown writes, "In the wine world, there are only two stories right now: People are drinking less wine, and climate change is destroying winemaking." Yet he's found another at their nexus: AI is assaulting the planet and undermining sensory perception. thefoodsection.com/feeling-our-...

Based on reader feedback, lots of folks weren't familiar with baker's lung before reading our West Virginia correspondent's coverage of one pepperoni roll factory's efforts to combat it. Even if you're fluent in flour dust threats, check it out! thefoodsection.com/air-of-resis...

When the Food Journalist Needs Food Stamps by @serenamaria36.bsky.social

Decision Desk has called both of Georgia's statewide races, for public service commissioner, for Democrats. If confirmed, this would be a really huge win for Democrats: It'd be their first statewide win in any non-federal race since 2006!

This is independent media at its best. Tune in!

If anyone's seeking comment on the restaurants which made Michelin's American South list, my count shows I've eaten at 117 of them (but famously not Malagon; couldn't resist resurrecting this one.) www.postandcourier.com/food/restaur...

While a spokeswoman distinguished the release forwarded to @thefoodsection.bsky.social by @ashevegas1.bsky.social from tonight's "official release," she didn't respond to a question about its accuracy. Enjoy with lots of salt! www.globenewswire.com/news-release...

Said more and more in the post-Spaghetti corpse era.

Want to sound smarter than your friends when chatting about what tonight's Michelin ceremony in Greenville will yield? Today in TFS, @alisoncook.bsky.social shares her one-year-in observations from Houston. thefoodsection.com/its-michelin...

The Food Section's ABC rankings page is shaping up nicely, with another set of store scores today, along with a look at the state's amaro deficit by @btparsons.bsky.social and an appreciation of Amarula, frequently offered by clerks familiar with just one ama- liqueur. thefoodsection.com/abc/

One of the first myths we demolished about North Carolina's ABC system when we set out to rank stores statewide is that each store is the same as the next. Many thanks to @davidwondrich.bsky.social for weighing in on a cocktail guide only found in Scotland County: thefoodsection.com/the-best-rea...

If you're going to read just one installment in our North Carolina ABC store rankings package, make it this one: thefoodsection.com/we-filed-171...

If you've gone from one North Carolina ABC store to the next, fruitlessly looking for amaro, take five bucks from that unspent liquor budget and buy The Food Section's ranking of 97 ABC stores across N.C. Here's why we pursued this massive secret-shopping project: thefoodsection.com/the-abcs-of-...

The massive number of marchers is encouraging, but it's the small groups of protesters which make the movement meaningful. Thanks for covering, @mississippifreepress.org

Come out and play, all you restaurateurs hell-bent on replicating NY/NJ interpretations of Italian cooking in the Carolinas. In today's newsletter, my thoughts on the cuisine's promise and growth potential in the American South. thefoodsection.com/scenes-from-...

"We are unable to respond to feature pitches that lack a description of a clear, central storyline/thesis..." I suffer from that condition too!

Every day, @thefoodsection.bsky.social implicitly counters contemporary food journalism’s shortcomings—but sometimes we have to take on legacy media directly. Many thanks to Candy Hom for sharing her accounting of the AJC’s new 50 Best Restaurants list. thefoodsection.com/looking-for-...

The recap is free to read, but only paying TFS subscribers this week met our new W. Va. bureau chief (how many media orgs have one of those?), learned about the best baleada in Aiken, S.C., and heard from an Asheville brewery worker fired for an FB post. Don't miss out! thefoodsection.com/subscribe/

I spent years fishing for numbers to show vape shops are opening across the South at the expense of independent restaurants, and netted nothing--but was able to establish the retailers are taking over cultural space that once belonged to F&B. thefoodsection.com/sucking-up-s...

“For decades there has been a very large money spigot open to those who are willing to sow hatred, bigotry, inequality and intolerance...Not so much being a plain ol' reporter or critic, stating facts and making necessary arguments without fear or favor.” #supportculturaljournalism

I am eternally grateful to @thefoodsection.bsky.social correspondents for their storytelling acumen, commitment to accuracy, and compassion for their subjects, but I also really like when they give me a chance to write heds like this one: thefoodsection.com/future-bride...

I failed to impress my husband with this headline for a @jedportman.bsky.social pawpaw soda chat, but hoping it's a hit with the masses (or at least @jessehirsch.bsky.social) thefoodsection.com/pawpaws-for-...

Need to add more food journalism to your media diet? TFS is among the pubs participating in the Indie Media Drive this month: We'd love your support! thefoodsection.com/subscribe/

Just one reason why @thefoodsection.bsky.social entrusts its commemorative reporting to journalists who were there for the original event. Watch your inboxes tomorrow morning for Todd's coverage of how restaurants responded to the storm, and what it means for NOLA and Southern food culture today.

You can’t go home again, but you can go back to the town where you worked your first newspaper job…and get above-the-fold treatment. cdispatch.com/news/two-dec...

Hardly suprising that a story about curly fries has more twists and turns than the typical single food item feature, but the upshot is we now have a better idea of who helped make the potato shape a restaurant favorite. Good work, J.E. Gustin! thefoodsection.com/the-long-and...

Wow. If even T&L has quit shilling, you know something's gone wrong around here. Did I mention I'm moving? thefoodsection.com/macon-georgi...

I returned from #IRE25 all fired up to use AI for FOIA requests, but ChatGPT cried uncle, saying the task was too boring for anyone but a freelance journalist.

Today in TFS, Colleen Hamilton has the story of how the potential of rehabilitative programs and Georgia’s past of labor exploitation come together in a jar innocuously labeled, “Governor’s Mansion honey.” thefoodsection.com/beekeeping-f...

my most Gen X coded belief is that cities and the culture at large suffer profoundly for the near-complete death of alt-weeklies

I have no idea how @onebywillie.bsky.social and @soundopinions.bsky.social hooked up, but seeing them cross in my podcast feed is like finding out my college and high school best friends have started hanging out together.

A couple of other numbers to consider: One month of the Chron is priced at $19.96. WaPo is $17. The Food Section costs $9, and I’ll make it five bucks if you subscribe today. thefoodsection.memberful.com/checkout?cou...

How many college campuses have their own distillery? And classes that teach students how to create, market, and sell a bourbon brand? @universityofky.bsky.social does, and I wrote about it for The Food Section. thefoodsection.com/selling-scho... Use code BARTON to get past the paywall!

"Of the 14 Charleston [F&B] superstars who loom over Queen Street in a mural painted by David Boatwright, four have left the industry. Three have moved away. Two have died. But just over a decade ago [...] the people depicted on brick were inseparable from the city’s surging culinary scene."

One of the lessons of Helene is longstanding governmental inadequacies and new climate realities are a deadly combination. Typically excellent work by @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social

Thanks, Steve! And while fans of traditional barbecue may bid good riddance to the rules and fancy rigs, as @tprice504.bsky.social notes, these big events were long a source of needed revenue for small towns and nonprofits.

My least favorite phrase in retail is “comparable value.”

Just witnessed the best May Day moment I could ever hope to see: A St. Augustine tourist on a trolley barked at a groundskeeper watering a hotel lawn that he’d missed a spot—and the worker sprayed him in the face.

Emma Castleberry did such a great job capturing Tony (the headlining bear), and the city of Asheville too. Paid subscribers can Zoom with them both next week--use this coupon and your first month's free; there's no obligation to stick around for a second. thefoodsection.memberful.com/checkout?cou...

When a few well-known Southern chefs shifted away from the cultural identities that made them famous, I cycnically thought the worst at first, but reporting on their new restaurants reminded me that that the complex story of U.S. immigration doesn’t end upon arrival. thefoodsection.com/about-face/

Delighted to see @theflytrapmedia.bsky.social’s own @tinavasquez.bsky.social’s delightful read on quinceañera catering cited in @hannaraskin.bsky.social’s The Food Section ASME win! Congrats all.