Grub Street :(

So sorry to see that Grub Street Chicago does not exist any longer. I really enjoyed the writing and reporting and hope to see it reincarnated in another format. There just isn't enough food coverage.

I know, right? Someone should come along and start a really good chat site to continue compiling the intel.

Grub Street filled an important role in Chicago food media. Whereas most sites are just happy to regurgitate press releases, Grub Street engaged in some actual reporting and got stories out that the Eaters and Dining Divas of the world had no interest in.

Blogs, chat sites, Twitter...all of these have a role in steering people towards the best stuff to eat, and we are certainly worse off for Grub Street no longer having a Chicago presence.

I do generally agree. Mike had a good piece on why not to be particularly surprised or glum about Grub. Journalism is undergoing a reinvention, and reporters (including every one of us, paid or no) need to be the change we want to see, since many of the media companies have not found a path to sustainability (or efficacy). I'm proud this forum persists, and that we feed back in (pun intended) to the best external critical reporting. I don't say this blindly, since there are many issues and opportunities to learn in any community. But we are a continuing current, which is a consolation when other sources are up and down. I'll miss Grub, but I see journalists of all generations experimenting around here and similar sites and know excellent content will (eventually) rise to the top out there.

Santander wrote:I know, right? Someone should come along and start a really good chat site to continue compiling the intel.

Stop it!

What Mike brought to Grub Street Chicago, and what I miss from many (though not all) other food news sites, is analysis. It's one thing to report that a restaurant is closing, for example; it's another to investigate why it might be closing and what that closing bodes for the local dining scene. That was Mike's MO: to add value to information by applying thought to it.

as an infrequent contributor, frequent reader, and a pal with one of the city editors, I officially want to say: RIP (non-NYC edition) Grub Street.

I don't know about analysis, but GS is known, site-wide, to be an antagonist submerged in the foodie movement. They will mock the shit out of you, as good New Yorkers are want to do, while reporting the "news". And they paid decent, unlike Village Voice/Curbed Network.