Why I am doing this
Against my better judgement.I dislike newsletters. Most of them are coupon books with a haircut. They open with "Hey friend!" and end with a button that says "Unlock". There is a person on the other end who has been told to drive engagement, and you can feel it in every line.
The problem is that the good stuff I find each week — the Cantonese place that opened in a barber's, the once-great room now phoning it in, the disagreement between the critics and the data — doesn't fit into a search result. It needs a paragraph. Sometimes two.
So: a dispatch. One a week. Friday-ish. Short enough to read with a coffee, opinionated enough that you'll either nod or disagree out loud. No tracking pixels, no "just-checking-in", no "here's what you missed". If I don't have anything worth saying, I don't send.
That last bit is a promise I will probably keep.
What's in it
Five small things. Read in five minutes.| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| One pick | A place I'd send my brother to. With a sentence on why. |
| One warning | Somewhere overrated, overhyped, or overcharging. Named. |
| One disagreement | Where the critics and the crowd are in opposite corners — and which side I'm on. |
| One pattern | Something the data is telling me. Trend down at a name you'd know, say. |
| One aside | An old menu, a closed dining room, a chef who used to be somewhere else. Marginalia. |
No round-ups of "the top ten brunches in Shoreditch". That's what the rest of the site is for, and even there I'd rather not.
A sample issue
So you know what you're signing up to.The pick: a Sichuan room in Camberwell I keep returning to.
The warning: a Mayfair name you've heard of, slipping for two quarters.
Disagreement: critics rave, locals don't. Reader, the locals are right.
Pattern: small plates are getting smaller. The bills are not.
Marginalia: what the old Time Out red book got right that we forgot.
Names are illustrative. Real issues name real places.
Right. The form.
The bit where I ask for your address.If you change your mind
As you will.- One click. No ‘are you sure?’.
- No ‘before you go, here are three reasons to stay’.
- No survey. No exit interview. No follow-up “we miss you” email a fortnight later.
- The link is at the bottom of every issue. It does what it says.
What this isn't
So we're clear.- Not a marketing list. I am not building a funnel.
- Not a digest of the website. If you wanted that, you'd use the website.
- Not sponsored. There are no “partners”. There never will be.
- Not daily. Not even close. If you see two in a week, something has gone wrong.
- Not an “experience”. It’s an email.