Dinners, Drinks & Desserts — Four years of digital food journalism
In 2018, I discovered a new passion project: digital food journalism. Beginning in the Hershey region with the USA Today Network’s Lebanon Daily News, I spearheaded the creation of a food and beverage beat that broke stories on everything from local coffee shop openings to national news about Hershey candies and the Yuengling brewery. After two years, I moved up to Pennsylvania’s fourth-largest metro, authoring a weekly column on dining and nightlife in the area.
Note that food writing is journalism that tends to be very marketing-adjacent. Imagine the impact on these businesses when anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of readers were reached.
These are some of my favorite or most memorable stories over that time period, selected based on relevance, performance and/or engaging storytelling.
Dinners
Chef puts new spin on BBQ with ‘Mexi-smoke fusion’ — When I stumbled on to Gio, he was serving out of his garage. Today, he runs multiple food trucks and has been covered by Philly news orgs.
Chicken Sandwich Wars now waged at Berks farmers market — This is an example of taking a national news story and localizing it to maximize both interest and SEO reach.
Is this really the best crab cake in Lebanon County? — This is a local news story that performed exceptionally well due in no small part the manufactured controversy baked into the headline.
Empanada stand crushes it at Kutztown University — Are empanadas actually the perfect to-go food for campus life? One intrepid journalist wanted to find out.
Drinks
Did you know there’s a Starbucks in Lebanon County? — It can take years for a chain to become popular enough to open in Lebanon. So, for Starbucks fans, I found this little-known-but-true hack.
Carol Stoudt to continue making beer after Stoudts Brewing closes — Stoudts was a true pioneer in craft brewing. This was a legacy piece that enticed readers with the promise of more to come.
Rotunda Brewing still growing in popularity — Our original story played a role in the brewer getting sued by the maker of SweeTarts candies, showing the reach “local” news can have in the right hands.
Kitty Town Coffee is winning over Lebanon — Sometimes you stumble on to a funny human interest story that involves both food and animals (two searchable and engaging topics) and you just run with it.
Desserts
Hershey Kisses missing their tips, angering bakers — During the 2018 holiday season, Hershey made national headlines due to a production issue with one of its most famous candies. We broke the story.
Yuengling Hershey’s Chocolate Porter draws rave reviews — The collab between two of Pennsylvania’s most iconic food brands caused a fervor and left people needing answers. We had the scoop.
Veteran-owned bakery Semper Pie is on a mission — Make sure you save room for dessert. That slice of cheesecake you put away might be for a good cause.
Behind-the-scenes look at how Wertz Candies makes Opera Fudge — A piece of visual storytelling that showcased my ability to consider how writing works with or translates to video.