The Food Section delivers the food news and cultural insights you deserve.
Our mission at The Food Section is to serve eaters across the American South by providing them with the news they need to make their meals more meaningful. You can count on The Food Section for original, inclusive, and independent reporting about everything that influences how and what we eat and drink in the region today.
The Food Section’s subscriber-supported journalism has:
- Won recognition from the industry’s most prestigious organizations. The Food Section was the first solo newsletter to win an award from the Society for Features Journalism, finishing second only to Los Angeles Times in the Food Criticism category, the first solo newsletter honored with a James Beard award, and the first newsletter of any kind to win a National Magazine Award.
- Held power to account and challenged accepted narratives. As paid subscriber Nancie McDermott wrote in response to a story about a reported racist attack at a Gullah-owned restaurant on Daufuskie Island:
This is so important and so powerful, and I have not seen it anywhere else. I am so proud to be a subscriber and so grateful for your work. Plenty of places to find “What’s Hot/What’s Not” and so-called “Best Of” and coverage of The Usual (Culinary) Suspects. Not so many to find and dig into and highlight this absolutely essential and crucial food story.
- Swayed the national culinary conversation. Smithsonian reprinted The Food Section’s dive into Southern restaurants mentioned in The Guild Guide, a 1960s travel guide for gay men; the Atlanta Journal Constitution cited the newsletter's reporting on COVID mortality among restaurant workers; the New York Times picked up the story of Aunt Fanny’s Cabin after The Food Section investigated it.
- Connected readers to people and places they might not have encountered. The Food Section has shared stories from hundreds of cities and towns, including Emporia, Virginia, home to a taco stand located minutes from Interstate 95, the subject of the newsletter’s Beard-winning eating guide.
@hannaraskin Taqueria Victoria in Emporia VA was very good and a place you would not find in a million years otherwise.
The Food Section has been recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors, James Beard Foundation, Online News Association, New York University’s Arthur. L. Carter Journalism Institute, The Webby Awards, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals as one of the best newsletters—about food or otherwise—in the country.
Here’s what you won’t find in The Food Section:
- Breathless new restaurant coverage orchestrated by swanky PR firms
- Mindless parroting of popular opinions or reflexive veneration of popular people
- Unsubstantiated rumors, unearned praise, unfair treatment, or unquestioning acceptance of authority
Here’s what you will find:
- Intelligent food journalism that helps make sense of the South’s extraordinary and complex culinary scene
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- The week’s showpiece article, which could be an investigative expose, reported feature, or topical essay, is published on Mondays at 8 a.m. Eastern.
- On Tuesdays at 8 a.m. Eastern, paying subscribers receive Michael Stern's latest restaurant review.
- On Wednesdays at 8 a.m. Eastern, paying subscribers receive a food news dispatch from one of TFS' four local bureaus.
- On Thursdays at 8 a.m. Eastern, paying subscribers receive a drinks column from TFS' beverage team.
- On Fridays at 8 a.m. Eastern, readers learn about the latest TFS projects and subscriber perks.
Endorsements
I bet within a decade The Food Section trajectory will lead to a new truth source that rivals how we think of The New York Times today.”
I have been continually wowed by The Food Section. [Its] ideas add interest, depth, and life to what might have been a one-and-done blog.”
“So thankful that journalism is still alive! The Food Section is an absolute treasure, and I’m proud to be a paid subscriber.”
The Food Section was founded in 2021 to bring quality food journalism to the South’s underserved states, cities, and towns. The best way to support its work is to subscribe today.
Contributors
Nashville bureau chief
Mark Blankenship
@iamblankenship
Mark Blankenship has been an arts reporter for over 20 years, contributing to The New York Times, Variety, and TDF Stages, which he founded. He’s been on two game shows: Jeopardy! (where he didn’t win), and Name That Tune (where he won big.)
Asheville bureau chief
Emma Castleberry
With a background in journalism and keen eye for detail, Emma Castleberry believes food is a vital connection to culture, history, and community. She considers herself a connoisseur of classic cheeseburgers, and she’s a sucker for a well-made negroni.
Atlanta bureau chief
Sheeka Sanahori
@sheeka.sanahori
Sheeka grew up in metro Atlanta, graduated from UGA, and spent two years working as a local reporter in Macon, Georgia. Over the next decade-plus, she did stints in Greensboro, Charlotte, and Franklin, Tennessee, before coming back home to Decatur.
West Virginia bureau chief
Davina van Buren
@theappalachianfoodie
Davina van Buren is a veteran food and travel writer based in Charleston, West Virginia. She writes for publications such as Food & Wine, BBC Travel, Southern Living, and Modern Farmer.
Restaurant reviewer
Michael Stern
Michael Stern, co-creator of Roadfood.com—the first food website to feature photography—has written over 40 books about American food and popular culture. In 1992, he and Jane Stern were inducted into the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America for their pioneering work discovering regional food. A former editor at Gourmet and Saveur, Michael lives in Aiken, South Carolina.
Beer columnist
Tom Acitelli
Tom Acitelli is the author most recently of The Golden Age of Beer: A 52-Week Guide to the Perfect Beer for Every Week of the Year. His other beer books include The Audacity of Hops: The History of America's Craft Beer Revolution and Pilsner: How the Beer of Kings Changed the World.
Wine columnist
David W. Brown
@dwbwriter
David W. Brown is a New Orleans-based author whose nonfiction appears regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wine Enthusiast, and Scientific American, among many other places.
Spirits columnist
Susannah Skiver Barton
@whattastesgood
Susannah Skiver Barton is an award-winning journalist with a focus on all things alcoholic. In addition to bylines across the print and digital world, she serves as whiskey editor at The New Wine Review. She lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina with her family and the state’s best whiskey collection.
The Food Section: Charlotte
Associate editor
Taylor Bowler
taylor@thefoodsection.com
Taylor Bowler, the longtime lifestyle editor at Charlotte magazine, spent more than seven years covering the city's food-and-drink scene. Before Charlotte, she logged another seven years in Atlanta, writing for publications including Best Self Atlanta, Atlanta's Finest Dining, and Atlanta
Associate editor
Greg Lacour
greg@thefoodsection.com
NOLA native Greg Lacour is the former editor at Charlotte magazine, former Charlotte Observer reporter, and a 20-year resident of Charlotte. He owns a share of a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and has recently helped chronicle Charlotte's brewery-on-every-corner beer scene.
Associate editor
Kathleen Purvis
kathleen@thefoodsection.com
Kathleen Purvis, an award-winning, longtime Charlotte Observer food writer, has written for Garden & Gun, Charlotte magazine, and Southern Living. She also dabbles in books on bourbon and craft distilleries. She's been eating her way through Charlotte since 1985--yes, she started young.
Hanna Raskin, who received a Substack Local grant to launch The Food Section, was formerly the food editor and chief critic for The Post and Courier. Here’s a sampling of her work at the paper.
During Raskin’s eight-year tenure, she was nominated for four James Beard Foundation awards, winning the organization’s first-ever prize for local impact journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the Society of Features Journalism, National Center on Disability and Journalism, and the South Carolina Press Association, which in 2018 named her the state’s top beat reporter.
Raskin served as president of Association of Food Journalists and headed its ethics committee. She lives in Macon, Georgia, but is frequently on the road (or the rails) in the South.