A Dining Out Announcement

Something new, if you like.

Hello everyone,

I’m writing to you on a Wednesday – which is not our usual day for convening, I know, and I apologise if I startled you by darkening your inbox – because I have some news.

From this week onwards, I’m making a paid subscription to Dining Out available. It doesn’t really change too much about what it is we are doing here, because my Thursday posts, including tomorrow’s, will still be free for everyone to read, and they always will be. But if you enjoy my writing, and you’d like to read more from me every month, it’ll be possible to do so for £5 a month or £50 a year.

Your contribution will get you a bi-weekly post for paid subscribers only. This will be emailed out on Sundays (the first one is due this Sunday morning and will consist of My Big New York City Food Round-Up), and it will usually be a themed list of recommended restaurants, where you’ll get my thoughts – as well as those of some of my learned friends in food, writing, or adjacent industries – on the best date spots or places to sexily eat lunch on your own or restaurants wherein you will feel extremely glamorous, or whatever else.

I asked on Instagram recently about what people wanted to see from Dining Out and “lists” was pretty much the big answer, so I’m giving you what you have asked for, though I do reserve the right to occasionally throw in something a bit different – an interview with a chef I think is cool or a musing on Pizza Hut buffet or whatever – to keep it fun. I’ve also decided that I’m going to make an annual Dining Out zine, which paid subscribers will get for free.

And in terms of what “going paid” does for me: it will make it so that Lucy Letherland, the genius behind the newsletter’s illustrations, and I can bring you more food-related observations and lols, which, I have ascertained over the past couple of months, is the thing I like to do more than anything. Dining Out is, of course, a labour of love, but even those take time and effort, so basically your subscription will help us keep the publication going “at a Time that is Difficult for freelance journalists and illustrators” (the less said about that the better but: it is Not Ideal). In exchange, you just get more stuff to read.

Writing Dining Out is, honest to god, the highlight of my life, and it is such a thrill to share it with you every week. I’m so grateful and flattered that anyone reads it at all. So if you are interested in hearing more from Dining Out every month, you can check out the subscription plans here or via the button below. If not, that’s all good with me, too. Either way, I’ll see you tomorrow for the weekly review.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. Big spaghetti kisses.
Lauren xo