You used to be my homie, you used to be my ace, but now grocery stores are washed selling crap without taste.

I am loving reading @weareravenous.com, which has hit the ground running really beautifully!!!

Plus, a look at the way venture capital is getting into bagels and why it matters who makes yours.

Gary, Indiana, isn’t known for its restaurants, so what would “The Bear” want to do with this city just a short drive away from Downtown Chicago? Ashok Selvam investigates — and eats a coney dog.

“Imagine loading one of these babies up with pigs in a blanket and a spritz at a wedding! Oh you think that looks tacky during your cocktail hour? Maybe you should have thought of that before providing four standing tables for 100 people.” www.weareravenous.com/sip-and-snac...

‘Gastronauts’ understands that cooking shows aren’t dramas. They’re comedy. Host Jordan Myrick talks about how the series deconstructed the food competition.

Or, why don't we have sausage rolls in the United States?

thanks @weareravenous.com! time to fire up the smoker…🔥

"When I saw that Evan LeRoy, half of the famed LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue in Austin, Texas, and Paula Forbes (@paulaforbes.bsky.social), noted cookbook author and restaurant critic for Texas Monthly, were dropping a cookbook, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy...

From its conception, Manhattan’s HAGS has built a pay-what-you-can Sunday brunch into its business model. Chef Telly Justice wants to use her model as a prototype, touring the U.S., sharing her knowledge of how pay-what-you-can service works, and encouraging other restaurants to take up the cause.

@aemccarthy.bsky.social writes about the decline of the American sports bar, and how two very disparate forces — women's sports, and gambling — are shaping its future. Also shared by our friends at @defector.com

After many months of planning, meeting, writing, and learning a lot more about finance than any of us thought we would in our careers, and after April’s month-long subscriber drive that has brought so many of you to us, we have officially arrived at Day 1 of Ravenous. We have two stories for you.

We’ve heard from numerous food writers and creatives who are interested in publishing their work in Ravenous. Missing our goal means fewer paid opportunities for the freelance food journalists we'd love to work with.

We’re less than 24 hours away from the end of our subscriber drive. We’re about $60,000 away from our goal — and that means we need 890 of YOU to become paid subscribers today to fund the quality food coverage on Ravenous for a year: weareravenous.com

Over the weekend, @thecourtneyesmith.bsky.social dropped a newsletter with some thoughts on the enshittification of bagels as venture capital enters the space. At Ravenous, we believe that not everything has to scale — including bagels. Read it here: bit.ly/48HySiA

So we’re a few days from the end of our subscription drive at @weareravenous.com, and I’m so amazed by the response we’ve gotten. But we’re still a bit far from hitting our goal, so I wanted to talk a bit about why that’s the goal and what we want to do with it 1/

All five of Ravenous' worker-owners are union members. Many of us are organizers who bargained contracts improving the working conditions of hundreds of journalists We worked to raise more than a quarter of a million dollars in mutual aid to benefit laid-off journalists. Then we all got laid off.

Thinking a lot about solidarity today and how much amazing support from other worker owned coops we’ve gotten at @weareravenous.com, and how excited we are to share what we’ve learned with anyone. Comrades not competition is the way forward!!!

After we exited Eater together in Aug 2025, @thecourtneyesmith.bsky.social co-founded Ravenous & was the first person to put down money — she’s the one who secured the site’s domain name. We chat with Smith about the state of the media industry & where she ate after getting laid off: buff.ly/kM3E5j2

A connection I made via Eater here in Chicago, @shokdiesel.bsky.social, has helped start the @defector.com of Food (Foodfector?) called @weareravenous.com. Check it out & subscribe if you're into food, restaurants, culinary trends, and supporting worker-owned journalism. www.weareravenous.com

Food media is broken. There are several reasons for this, but we think it can be distilled into three core issues:

Grant Achatz, co-owner and chef of (now) two-Michelin-starred Alinea, revealed he’s part of the growing number of chefs using Substack. In our Sunday newsletter, @shokdiesel.bsky.social explores what led Achatz to write a 2,700-word post: buff.ly/qSZgwDb

ICYMI, we’ve been sending a couple of pre-launch newsletters to give our subscribers a taste of what we’ll be delivering when we launch. In the most recent blast, @jayasaxena.com described the scene at a surprising hot spot in NYC and collected the founders’ favorite dishes.

A little birdie told me we’ve been mentioned on the LA Food podcast. Appreciate being compared to Rage Against the Machine 🐦‍⬛✊ open.spotify.com/podcast-chap...

A few of us waxed about tuna tostadas in various parts of the country! www.weareravenous.com/best-tuna-to...

This is the story of how a Slack conversation led us to compare notes on tuna tostadas in New York, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago. And to the realization that what food trend reporting really needs is reporters all over the country to tell every angle of the story.

Back in August 2025, Jaya Saxena sent an email to organize a group of us to start a worker-owned food culture website. This message was the first step in our journey of building Ravenous.

We’re at 50% to goal! Special shout-out to Katy, our newest paid subscriber, who took us over the halfway mark. Thank YOU to all our early bird supporters for believing in our mission. We’ve been busy working on some exciting stories and projects that we hope to share with y’all very soon!

Ravenous is .5 of a percentage point away from hitting 50% of our fundraising goal by April 21, the halfway point in our subscriber drive. If you have been meaning to subscribe, now is the time! www.weareravenous.com

This is a movement

As a group who have worked in food media for collective decades, Ravenous’ five founders have dealt with our fair share of egos, misunderstandings, and frustrations.

Time flies! There are 6 days left to hit 50% of our goal by the halfway point of our subscriber drive. That means we need 117 readers to become annual paid subscribers by April 21. Help us stay on track to launch Ravenous.

Meet @shokdiesel.bsky.social, Ravenous’ James Beard Award-winning co-founder. Here, he talks about the power of good journalism, of working as a team, and of a strong shot of Malört.

I had the absolute pleasure of profiling my fellow @weareravenous.com worker owner @shokdiesel.bsky.social. If you are not familiar with Ashok’s signature “Table Dad” wit or relentless reporting, now’s the time to get acquainted with his award-winning brain. www.weareravenous.com/meet-ashok-s...

Big media won’t make this promise, but Ravenous will. We guarantee that we will never publish anything made with generative AI — no articles written with ChatGPT, no uncanny art with seven fingers. We actually speak with people and taste their dishes, write our own work, and value human creativity.

We’re on the TASTE podcast! Founder-owner @jayasaxena.com sits down with @mattrodbard.bsky.social, TASTE editor-in-chief, about what’s been missing in food media and what Ravenous brings to the table. buff.ly/71yMVP6

Every writer needs someone to help them figure out how to promote their work and connect with the audience. At Ravenous, that person is @francesdoingthings.bsky.social. She’s already the mastermind behind our social presence and has done a huge chunk of planning our fundraising.

SUPPORT INDIE MEDIA--especially publications focused on food! So many food publications are bad and exclusionary and out of touch and I know this won't be because of who's behind it!

I don't know how many hundreds of hours I've spent in union meetings with @aemccarthy.bsky.social but it didn't take many of them to realize she is excellent at everything she does. If you like food, good writing, or good people, subscribe to this extremely awesome publication. This is so cool.

We figured it was time for you to meet the team behind Ravenous! Today, we’ve got an interview with founder-owner Amy McCarthy (@aemccarthy.bsky.social), who is a longtime writer, editor and union organizer.

I’m not ugly crying, you’re ugly crying!

I'm excited about Ravenous, a brand-new worker-owned food culture media org with beloved contributors like @jayasaxena.com! Subscribe!

We’re stunned. In just day 1 of our subscriber drive, we’ve raised $48,884! 🎉 That’s 30 percent of our goal of $160,000 to support the launch of Ravenous. We’re blown away by the love and support we’ve received from YOU.

my cold black heart has grown three sizes today watching so many people supporting @feedravenous.bsky.social. $70/year gets you all the food journalism we can make, plus the smug satisfaction of knowing that you're helping make this thing happen learn more here: www.weareravenous.com/coming-soon/

Soooo exciteddddddd

Hell yeah some of my favorite cultural critics in the food space—a place we desperately need it!!

just subscribed. can't wait for this

Let’s go!!!

Corporate media is cooked. Worker-owned media is the future. Come with us if you want to eat.