Happy holiday break
Happy holiday break
The Food Section is taking a little time off
Longtime readers of The Food Section will recall that this is the time of year when Southern cities and towns bring down all kinds of things. To usher in the new year, Mount Olive, North Carolina will lower a glowing pickle; Mobile, Alabama will drop a MoonPie, and Morehead City, North Carolina will plunge a lit-up crab pot.
Here at newsletter HQ, we’re instead putting up a temporary out-of-the-office sign.
I mean that literally, as the above photo of my office door shows. For my latest birthday, I requested a ‘closed’ placard so I wouldn’t be tempted to wander back into the home office after shutting down for the day.
Or, in this case, one week and change. The Food Section will return to its regular publishing schedule on Friday, January 6, 2023.
Many thanks to paying subscribers for making this extended break possible. I’m looking forward to my usual vacation regimen of books and bridge. And should you need something to read while I’m away, I’ve linked below to several features which have appeared in The Food Section since September.
Best wishes for a fantastic holiday season and a happy New Year—however you choose to commemorate it.
It won’t be the same without Snack Bar: At the start of the pandemic, restaurant experts debated which food-and-beverage format was most threatened by COVID-19. Could fine dining survive? Buffets? As the closing of a beloved Hickory, North Carolina institution demonstrated, restaurants serving an elderly clientele remain in peril.
Finding the South in a Popeyes box: The Food Section this season started publishing freelance writers’ takes on Southern food, including Gloria Oladipo’s personal reflections on the meaning of Popeyes fried chicken to the daughter of Nigerian immigrants.
Wake up, wine country: While it’s hard to gauge the virality of email newsletters, anecdotal reports put this review of Travis Milton’s new restaurant among The Food Section’s most forwarded stories.
When the drive through is deadly: If there’s a story that encapsulates what The Food Section is trying to do, it might be this data-driven report on the little-known crisis of drivers plowing into restaurants, maiming low-wage workers and guests.
Beliefs and bacteria: Whatever you do over the holidays, it’s best if you don’t poison your dinner guests. The Food Section profiled the North Carolina food safety expert helping home cooks avoid that unfortunate scenario.