You'll Want to Read these Odes to Restaurants and the People Who Make them Special

To All the Restaurants I’ve Loved Before

Restaurants mean so much more than just food and order-taking. Jamie Feldmar writes beautifully about how a restaurant welcomed her into a new life and a new city, and how much it meant to her, over at Food & Wine.

The Last Waiter

When restaurants closed, the people who made them personal places rife with stories and memories were removed from our daily lives. John T. Edge channels how that feels as he writes longingly of the people he misses most in this essay from Garden & Gun.

Tom Colicchio Spent 19 Years Building a Restaurant Empire. Coronavirus Gutted It in a Month.

Aaron Gell’s account at Medium of how Tom Colicchio built his restaurants over two decades, and then lost them in the last month may make you feel better about what’s happened to the industry, or at least provide context. Colicchio also discusses how unchecked capitalism led us to this broken model, and his hopes for the future.