I left my job at Substack last week. You can read about why I’m now over at Every here, here, and here.
I love Substack, and I loved the work. A little more than two years in the weeds with a great team, helping turn a tool to send text via email into a cultural destination. I devoured charli xcx’s essay this week on stardom, a perfect use of the platform.
More than anything, I’m grateful for the deep list of talented people I got to work with, many of whom became real friends: Emily Sundberg, Kaitlin Phillips, Rachel Karten, Biz Sherbert, Emily Wilson, Olivia Weiss, Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, Brooks Reitz, Casey Lewis, Derek C. Blasberg, Alex Heath, Jim Acosta, Rembert Browne, Ben Dietz, Eddie Huang, Audrey Horne, Matt Rodbard, Kactus.jpg and a bunch more people who genuinely change how culture is shaped today. One reason I dipped to run growth at Every is that watching these writers do their thing inspired me to go build stuff.
On to business: This weekly food blog shouldn’t change much. Next week I’ll do a deep dive on Thanksgiving cooking — menu planning, prep lists, lessons, mistakes. The following week, a bunch of friends will join me in giving their takes on the year in LA and New York dining. And then we’ve got the big, annual Bangers Only rankings. (I will probably go live less).
Frankly, I like camping out in this little corner of food media too much to give it up. There remains a real dearth of smart, informed, tasteful, honest and entertaining coverage of restaurants, as well as the money, status, personalities and shenanigans that surround this world. Some of the folks I mentioned above do it incredibly well. J Lee and Helen Rosner are always essentially reading (and listening). Same for Chris Crowley, Tejal Rao and Clare de Boer. How Long Gone is often the best food podcast around. I’m intrigued by what Max Tcheyan is building next. There’s good shit out there, even if the best shit mostly remains in text messages.
We’re past two years of Bangers & Jams. Thank you for subscribing, whether you’re free or paid. If you’re a paid subscriber, you’re the best, seriously. I’m going to keep making this thing as valuable as possible.
If you want to stay at the cutting edge of what’s happening in AI and supercharge whatever kind of work you’re doing with a suite of productivity apps, head over to Every. If you just want hot takes on the best and worst places to eat in New York and LA, stay right here.
Love y’all.
😭😭😭🫡
Yay Austin