Caper

Thousands of industry folks attend the annual Summer Fancy Food Show. (Photo courtesy of Specialty Food Association.) The first thing I noticed was the gust of wind that hit me as I exited the Hudson Yards train station—also notorious forits incredibly vertical escalator—as I walked with a growing mass of people towards the Javits Center.

Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff, President Pam Wasserstein, Eater Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Wu, and Vox Chief Revenue Officer Geoff Schiller celebrate Eater’s 20th anniversary in September 2025. (Photo by Jared Siskin/Getty Images.) W hen news broke in late May that James Murdoch had struck a deal worth more than $300 million to acquire New York Magazine, Vox.com, and Vox Media’s podcast network, the coverage focused on what was being bought.

Eddie Huang and Anthony Bourdain filming an episode of No Reservations at the original Baohaus in 2011. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage via Getty Images.) Okay, maybe the great tradition of the restaurateur raging at critics really is back. A couple of weeks ago, Roman and Williams’ Stephen Alesch took to the Instagram comments section (and his own grid) to protest a New York Magazine pan of Marcel.

Montero, the beloved Brooklyn Heights dive bar that dates to the 1930s, has found new owners who have pledged to preserve it. (Photo by Sebastian Lange.) I don’t want to live in a world without dive bars. It was in those sleazy, beer-soaked bat caves that I learned to be a man. I am thinking of a half dozen joints where, from 1990 to 2010, when my fourth child was born, I was welcomed as Norm was welcomed at Cheers.

In the attention economy, the most valuable thing in wine may not be the bottle, but the audience. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images.) M ichael Amorosia runs The Amorosia Cellar, a lifestyle brand that happens to be about wine. He is not selling bottles. He is selling what he calls “an environment where taste can develop without the gatekeeping that usually surrounds it.” When I asked about his theory of wine communication, he put it simply: “Traditional retail solves for availability.

Alison Roman and John Early at a promotional event for Maddie’s Secret at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 14, 2026.

The indefatigable Mr. Chow. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images.) The U.S. is now down three locations of the legendary Michael Chow’s art-centric restaurant, famous for serving Beijing-style plates to Mary Boone and Jean-Michel Basquiat, while the Middle East is up two. If I were still an art market reporter, I’d call that a financial indicator. Get exclusive access to the inside story of the restaurant business—the behind-the-scenes players, money, creativity, and chaos that fuel the industry.

A still from Mam, directed by Nan Feix and starring Jerald Head (left) and Nhung Dao Head (right). (Photo courtesy of Loveboat.) B ack in 2016, Jerald Head met his future wife, Nhung Dao Head, while visiting Ho Chi Minh City. As the couple told the writer Mayukh Sen, he approached Nhung with his shaky, beginner’s Vietnamese—and she mistook him for a college student.

Canada has always had the ingredients, the talent, and the chefs. All it needed was someone to finally notice. (Photo by Bettman/Getty Images.) T wenty-four years ago, some Brits decided to start ranking the world’s best restaurants; because why not? The editors of London’s Restaurant Magazine were in need of a sales boost. They gathered 150 experts (mostly men) and chose their favorites—I mean scientifically ranked—the greatest chefs (all men) of the moment.

Gabrielle Lamontagne’s collection of vintage Barbetta menus. (Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Lamontagne.) I’ve accidentally developed an auction beat at Caper. I reported on the Tribeca Grill auction, and Leon & Son, the wine shop that debuted a digital auction house to help restaurants sell off inventory.