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| Behold: the saddest beer bar in the world. |
(a) The pay. It's bad. REALLY bad.
(b) One year ago I didn't mind the pay being bad because I thought I really wanted to blog, about food, for a living, and this would give me a national platform to do so.
(c) In the past year I've found that I can have a very lucrative career as a freelancer covering a wide spread of topics, which means I really don't have time leftover to blog for practically free or just limit myself to food.
(d) Turns out I don't really like blogging, at least not from a professional standpoint. Well-researched pieces that take time and talent to craft -- yes. Being chained to a desk waiting for news to happen all day every day and the panicky rush to be FIRST when an announcement is made on Facebook or a press release goes out -- fuck no.
(e) Did I mention how bad the pay is? You would cry.
(f) I went down this road already with them last year when they offered me the job then decided EID was too much of a conflict and wanted me to shut 'er down. I built this brand from nothing and it is a strong brand and will continue to be, even with Eater here (perhaps even more so because they'll have no choice but to aggregate the shit out of me).
(g) I got that national platform thing taken care of now, so I'm good there too.
(h) Eater has a slightly different focus than EID -- with EID I like to really share and promote events. I like doing niche lists. I like in-depth features. I like first-person narration and positioning myself as both brand and personality. All of these things are outside Eater's wheelhouse. Similar, yet different, and I like mine better.
(i) Remember that comment about being chained to a desk all day waiting for news to happen? As a freelancer I have the enviable ability to work remotely from wherever I want, and if I plan my weeks out well enough I can take whole chunks of time off to travel and spend my days exploring things and living life. You know when you can't do that? When you are running a daily news-oriented blog with minimum post requirements and must ALWAYS BE FIRST. It's seriously stressful.
(j) I'm not a one-trick pony, and food isn't my only or even my primary interest. It's barely in my top 5. I like being able to write about travel, arts and culture, film, development, entrepreneurship, and all the other varying kinds of coverage that I do. Those are my interests. If I just focused on one very narrow thing, I would go out of my mind. Also, I want to get more into arts + culture, film, and travel. Taking on a daily food blog that makes a huge demand on my time and energy (for practically no pay) is not amenable to that plan.
So. I think I've covered everything. Thank you for the phone calls. The texts. The emails. The Facebook messages. The Facebook posts. The Tweets. I appreciate you all caring so much. But this is a position for a person in a very different place than I am professionally, and with different professional aspirations. That being said, I look forward to being aggregated the shit out of by Eater.
I wasn't going to do this little PSA, but honestly I'm getting sick of explaining myself over and over and over and over and over again. So: there^. Moving on!
Save the date: on June 29 I'm going to be doing a thing. Stay tuned. [EID]So, what's this Detroit City Distillery all about? Find out the who, what, when and where here. [Crain's]In case you missed it:~Whole Foods Midtown will be unlike any other Whole Foods in the country. And yet people are still going to cry about it. [Model D]
~Anthology Coffee has found a new permanent home at Ponyride, and apparently I (and persons of media) did too good of a job hyping up the Guns + Butter dinner because now it's sold out and I can't go. DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM????????? [Model D]
~Drink with your dog. [Real Detroit]
Confirmed: Atlas Global Bistro is closing when their lease is up at the end of May. From the Freep: "...Silveri said Monday that, contrary to some reports, the restaurant is not moving to the former Agave space on Woodward." Mmmmmm-hm. Told you. Just you wait. They 'gun get Gilberted. [Freep]Papa Joe's Gourmet Market to open ANOTHER new location downtown, this one in the Ren Cen and catering to office workers with prepared foods. When Detroit does something, we fucking DO IT. [Crain's]Pure marketing! [Michigan.org]Meet the new Prohibition. Why ban something when you can just criminalize it to the point of effectively banning it? [Detroit News]Read more about the food justice work being done at Food Lab. [Mode Shift]Urban farming is building Brightmoor. [Freep]Quickenstan will have its own outdoor markets this summer. [Curbed]Blessed BE; Sunday markets are coming to Eastern Market Corporation next year, and they'll focus on all Michigan vendors! About time that other weekend day (you know, the other one of only two) got put to some actual use. Maybe this will spur other area businesses to follow suit. This city is like a fucking ghost town on Sundays. Seriously, doesn't everyone want a full weekend to do stuff? How do you nine-to-fivers manage? [MLive]Charter One's Growing Communities Program is investing $160,000 in Eastern Market Corporation to strengthen Detroit’s local food economy, job creation efforts and small business development, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is contributing an additional $50,000! The Market, long known as a regional food hub, has transformed into an arts district, business incubator, and collaborative makerspace space just in the last two years, and will continue to evolve in that direction even more. EID ♥'s EM! [WXYZ]Thrillist got Charley the Singing Hot Dog Man to taste-test some of the offerings at the newly-opened The Grindhouse Food Truck. The results are sausage-filled poems in pictures. [Thrillist]Bikes. Beer. Community. It's the BBC (minus Doctor Who). Plus they're good for local businesses! [Mode Shift / Good]I'm not quite feeling the excitement for this WORLD OF BEER national chain bar opening in A2. Last year in New Orleans I went to a place called "Beer Fest" on Bourbon Street that made all the same promises of many, many taps from around the world, etc. (Actually, there were two of them on Bourbon and I went to both.) These were two of the saddest bars I've ever been to in my life. I feel like World of Beer is going to be Ann Arbor's version of that. [AnnArbor.com]Michigan fruit growers are looking to be in much better shape this year than last. [Crain's]The title of this story is "Hops Enthusiasts are Ruining Craft Beer for the Rest of Us." Is what I'm saying. [Slate]At some point things stop being tacos. Also food. [USA Today]