SOURCE CALL: If you work or recently worked at Maine Beer Co. and would like to tell me what Dan Kleban is like as a boss, I'm all ears. Email me [email protected] or securely text dinfontay.11 on Signal. Anonymity available. (RTs appreciated!)

Rather than reel off all the reasons I'm especially fond of today's TFS feature, I'll leave it to a paying subscriber to rave about Elijah Siegler's story: "Great article!" this reader writes. "A keeper." Check it out here: thefoodsection.com/the-gods-of-...

A reminder that if you're choosing who to back in the World Cup based on the quality of the nation's bread (totally defensible strategy!), there's an excellent Bosnian cafe in northeast Atlanta for tomorrow's viewing needs. thefoodsection.com/kicking-it-w...

If you haven’t already installed @thefoodsection.bsky.social app, there are half a dozen alluring images of Northern Kentucky hot slaw in it for you this morning (along with Daniel Walton’s wise words on the unjustly overlooked side dish). apps.apple.com/us/app/the-f...

Today's headline is hilarious to me and the two other longtime AAA members with a working knowledge of newsroom jargon. thefoodsection.com/interstate-4...

What do readers get when reporters leave their desks? Check out today's story about a Days Inn in western North Carolina where the price of a room includes stew for supper: thefoodsection.com/days-inn-in-...

We describe Spirited Brunch, @thefoodsection.bsky.social's signature annual event, as "a self-guided snack tour of downtown Charleston's prayerful spaces." But art always says it better: So grateful for Annie Grotophorst capturing how it feels to follow the route. thefoodsection.com/depth-percep...

Time was that food editors were in constant touch with their readers, but @afrosypaella.bsky.social couldn't even get an interview with @ajc.com's new hire when she wanted to ask: "How [will you] ensure Black eaters feel seen and heard in coverage?" thefoodsection.com/stacked-cove...

Another excellent piece from @hannaraskin.bsky.social's Food Section, this time on restaurants using AI for marketing and socials. thefoodsection.com/when-moons-h...

Antisemitism in America does not justify apartheid in Israel, apartheid is Israel does not justify antisemitism in America, a very simple concept that people seem to have a lot of trouble grasping.

Morgan Thomas takes a picture of every dining party at his restaurant in Section, Alabama, subtly making up for all the times that people today are ignored or overlooked. I’m so grateful he shared his Ole Gin Steakhouse portraits with @thefoodsection.bsky.social thefoodsection.com/photo-galler...

If better food journalism has hit the airwaves this year than Episode 3 of Catching the Codfather, I haven’t heard it. Major props to @iancoss.bsky.social and team for not only turning up archival snippets and getting the best quotes, but knowing which ones serve the story. overcast.fm/+ABDdBFBDyso

What counts as a Southern dish? The answer's always changing, but Candy Hom makes a irrefutable case for dry-fried eggplant in @thefoodsection.bsky.social, demonstrating how it reflects the modern culinary history of Atlanta and the city's ethos today. thefoodsection.com/canon-fodder/

I do my best Paul Theroux, attempting to turn the four hour Mardi Gras Express into an epic journey, with plenty of meals along the way. Perhaps today it becomes the Lentan Local? gardenandgun.com/feature/amtr...

When our W. Va. bureau chief pitched a Tudor's Biscuit World story, she mentioned the chain was so homey that its biscuits were named for loyal customers. "Oh, yeah?" I said. "You think that's true, or a story cooked up by corporate?" And thus began her Ron search. thefoodsection.com/biscuit-sand...

There are a few TFS stories I like to cite when explaining how @thefoodsection.bsky.social covers Southern food, and Hallie Lieberman’s reporting on the popularity of fried chicken-flavored lube may have just shot to the top of the list. Subscribe to read! thefoodsection.com/georgia-adul...

With the Post effectively abdicating its local news role, I would encourage anyone wanting to support local news in DC to support @51st.news and my old colleagues at @wcp.bsky.social. There is so much reporting needed in that city. Support them. Grow them.

Same same

If you are able, The Post's union has started a layoff fund for those fired by the world's fourth-richest man today. gofund.me/a310d0286

This is 100 percent correct, but it doesn't mean successful media orgs--ones which are serious about exposing and challenging harmful power structures--can't emerge from the ashes. Collaboration is coming. (We started as a measly Substack, and published a former Postie this week: thefoodsection.com)

Props to @seamushughes.bsky.social for showing how many vital stories go untold where legacy local news is kaput. One-man shops like @courtwatch.bsky.social & @thefoodsection.bsky.social can help, but we need reader support to hire reporters and obtain documents. www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

Worth noting that one reason you’re benefitting so fully from the Star-Tribune’s timely, extensive coverage of unfolding events is that it’s a metro newspaper that hasn’t been systematically starved to further enrich shareholders and executives.

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...