Welcome to Storyflo Daily Food. I'm Finn.
The launch the audio side of food media will be reacting to: per Eater, Andrew Rea — known as Babish — is joining the Vox Media Podcast Network with In the Booth with Babish, a new series in collaboration with Eater. Eater says the premiere drops Tuesday, May 26, with new episodes every other Tuesday, structured as a menu-shaped interview format with chefs and celebrities. The premiere guest is Peabody Award-winner Alton Brown. Stephanie Wu, Eater's editor-in-chief, frames the partnership as Eater leaning into restaurant-industry expertise paired with Rea's loyal cooking-video audience. The structural read: the food-creator-to-podcast transition is now standard, and Vox Media is using its podcast network as the long-form layer of its restaurant publication.
The list reshuffle to read before your next London trip: per Eater, the 38 Best London Restaurants map got its May 2026 refresh from editor Adam Coghlan. New entries Eater highlights: Impala, the new North African–inspired restaurant from the Super 8 group (Kiln, Brat, Smoking Goat) — Meedu Saad's grill took four years to open in Soho; Vincenzo's Pizza, a New York–style slice shop arriving in Bethnal Green from Watford; and Gymkhana returning to the 38 as the two-Michelin-starred Mayfair anchor. The taste signal: London's best-of list is leaning more on grill, regional Italian, and the South Asian fine-dining cohort than on the natural-wine bistros that defined the last cycle.
The opening to read for the format trend: per Eater, chef Jess Shadbolt and co-owner Annie Shi opened Dean's, a classic British pub next to their Soho bistro King. Eater describes the headline dish as a stargazy pie made with Spanish and Boston mackerels — confit and flaked into a bechamel filling with leeks, carrots, and corn, with a Boston-mackerel head and tail rising from the crust. The industry read: chef-owner pub spin-offs are emerging as the natural second act for bistro operators who want a more durable, less trend-exposed format.
The trend piece operators will be forwarding: per Eater, restaurants are in a blue period. Eater walks through Brooklyn's Margot, the now-closed LA standout Horses, LA's Electric Bleu, Brighton's Patio, Berlin's Cafe Gentil, and Singapore's Punch Room — all leaning hard on Yves Klein or Majorelle blue. Eater quotes Polonsky & Friends founder Anna Polonsky saying her studio is now steering clients away from blue because of oversaturation.
And on the operator side: per Eater, Joeleen Ng runs Bivy in Brooklyn and Georgie's in Manhattan — two cafes embedded inside climbing gyms, profiled in Eater's "third spaces" series.
That's your Storyflo Daily Food. Sources in the notes. Finn out.
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