Update, July 8: Excellent news, everyone: We have our own file art of square-sliced Chicago pizza now! The photos are by me, the pizza is from J.B. Alberto’s in Rogers Park, which may not objectively be the best in the city, but its definitely the best within walking distance of my own personal Takeout satellite…

Here’s a fun fact for you all: if Uncle Ben loses his job this year, it would not be for the first time. The bow-tied rice mascot was previously canceled back in 1971 and, after a 12-year absence, was reinstated to boxes of his namesake rice brand in 1983. In 2007, he was promoted, via an ad campaign, to chairman of…

When we look at the full scope of how the restaurant industry has been hit by COVID-19 restrictions, the government’s PPP loans granted to these businesses only scratch the surface of how they might be supported in their efforts to recover. Phased reopening plans offer another avenue for recovery: limited capacity…

Cutesy, slogan-emblazoned home goods comprise a category of merchandise we know all too well. You’ve seen these items while strolling through T.J. Maxx or Target or Sur La Table. They are the very bedrock of Pinterest boards. And now, a vapid little set of salt and pepper shakers have become the source of much strife…

If you’re a fan of Queer Eye, you’ll remember Marcos Tlacopilco, the hero of season 5, episode 8, “Father Knows Fish.” Marcos, an immigrant from Puebla, Mexico, is the owner of Marco’s Fish and Crab House in Philadelphia. Over the course of the episode, the Fab Five helped him reconcile with his estranged daughter,…

If you didn’t already know, Planet Money on NPR has an excellent newsletter, and a featured segment of that newsletter this week laid out everything that beer sales can tell us about the state of the U.S. economy. It turns out to be a surprising amount, though the data can be a bit confusing. Just like the economy!

We have many brilliant writers all over the country and the world who have contributed to The Takeout’s Acquired Tastes section, and while I’m grateful for all that these fine essays have taught me about unfamiliar foods, I’m also left seething with jealousy that I don’t get to eat these things immediately after…

I have good news for the chubby-cheeked child within you and the possible real children who might live with you: You can make homemade Magic Shell with just two ingredients. For the uninitiated, Magic Shell is the Smucker’s term for an ice cream topping that lives up to both halves of its name. It starts out as a…

My only complaint with s’mores is that they’re a bit of an unwieldy treat. The contrasting textures are nice—gooey marshmallow, creamy chocolate, crispy cracker—but the structural integrity of a s’more is laughable. Take a single bite, and you’re lucky if half of the top graham cracker doesn’t give way entirely,…

When I decided to step away from writing to take a brief vacation last week, my thinking was that while the news cycle hasn’t exactly been calm lately, it was unlikely that something would happen that could compel me to return to my laptop. So, of course, it was at that exact moment the universe revealed to me that…

Restaurants and bars are opening up across the country, and people sure are going to them! That is certainly a choice that I don’t feel comfortable making, but if you simply must go out right now and pay someone else to make and bring you your food, it’s very important that you don’t act like an unappreciative dweeb.

These past few months have been tumultuous for everyone, and that includes food mascots. Already Aunt Jemima, Land O’Lakes’ Mia, and the namesake of Eskimo Pies have been retired, while Uncle Ben, Mrs. Butterworth, and the chef on the Cream of Wheat box await their thorough review. And now add Big Boy to the list of…

I did not realize until this very moment that what my life was missing was the TikTok user wildfood007. How can you not love a man who prepares obscene amounts of food amid some gorgeous mountain scenery, calling out each ingredient with the cadence of a football coach as he throws it in the pan, cooks it over a…

Four employees of a Jimmy John’s location in Woodstock, Georgia, have been fired after one employee posted a video online last weekend of a coworker fashioning a noose out of bread dough and slipping it around another employee’s head. The person filming the video, as well as another coworker watching and filming the…

Hershey, Pennsylvania, as we’ve reported before, is kind of a magical place. What’s not to love about an entire town devoted to the production of candy? The very air smells like chocolate.