Logo
magnifying-glass
Search
sign-in
Sign In
pencil-simple-line
Subscribe
Logo
Oliver Buchannon
Marco Shalma

Editor-in-Chief, We Eat Here. Food culture from the operator's view. 20-year NYC hospitality veteran.

THE WATER BILL IS THE NEW RENT

Jul 14, 2026

•

5 min read

THE WATER BILL IS THE NEW RENT

On July 1, the city made water cost more again. The NYC Water Board approved a 6 percent increase on water and sewer rates. It is the sixth year in a row the number has gone up. Stack the last five years together and the line has climbed 35 percent. For an apartment, that lands as a few more dollars a month, the kind of thing you notice and forget. For a kitchen, it is a permanent markup on the one input an operator cannot shop around, cannot swap, and cannot cut down to nothing.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
The Cathedral Handed Out Groceries the Morning the Benefits Were Cut

Jul 14, 2026

•

3 min read

The Cathedral Handed Out Groceries the Morning the Benefits Were Cut

In Morningside Heights, when the food benefits started to disappear, the response came on a Sunday morning at 112th and Amsterdam.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THE $5.4 BILLION HOLE THAT NYC WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO IGNORE

Jul 13, 2026

•

3 min read

THE $5.4 BILLION HOLE THAT NYC WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO IGNORE

New York City is spending money it does not have, and for the first time since the pandemic, Moody's is saying so out loud.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
Sunset Park Did Not Wait for the Court Order

Jul 12, 2026

•

3 min read

Sunset Park Did Not Wait for the Court Order

In Sunset Park, the food showed up before the government did.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
Yelp Buried Your Reviews. Then It Buried Itself.

Jul 12, 2026

•

3 min read

Yelp Buried Your Reviews. Then It Buried Itself.

Somewhere in this city, a restaurant took the shiny red badge Yelp mailed out this year, the one that reads People Love Us on Yelp 2025, and stuck it to the inside of a toilet bowl. Not the front door. Not the register. The bowl. Whoever runs that kitchen wanted the last word on a fifteen-year argument, and they made it without writing a sentence.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

TWO APPS DECIDE WHO DRIVES IN NEW YORK, AND THEY CAN END YOUR CAREER

Jul 9, 2026

•

3 min read

TWO APPS DECIDE WHO DRIVES IN NEW YORK, AND THEY CAN END YOUR CAREER

For years, Uber and Lyft could cut a New York driver loose with no notice, no reason, and no appeal. Two apps run most of the city's for-hire work. A deactivation is not a rough shift. It is the end of the job.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

Hero

SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS, FIVE STORES, TWO SUMMERS AWAY. FAT JOE ALREADY FED THE BLOCK.

Jul 9, 2026

•

4 min read

SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS, FIVE STORES, TWO SUMMERS AWAY. FAT JOE ALREADY FED THE BLOCK.

A Bronx rapper with three sneaker stores beat a seventy-million-dollar program to the block.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THE 45-DAY CLOCK: WHAT MAMDANI'S SMALL BUSINESS ORDER CAN AND CANNOT FIX

Jul 7, 2026

•

3 min read

THE 45-DAY CLOCK: WHAT MAMDANI'S SMALL BUSINESS ORDER CAN AND CANNOT FIX

New York opens and closes small businesses faster than almost anywhere else in the country. This spring the math went the wrong way. Roughly 8,400 businesses closed citywide. Roughly 3,500 opened. That gap has been eating corners of this city for a decade. What is new is a mayor putting his name on a promise to close it.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

FOUR FIRMS SET THE PRICE ON YOUR PLATE, NOT YOUR FAVORITE SPOT

Jun 30, 2026

•

4 min read

FOUR FIRMS SET THE PRICE ON YOUR PLATE, NOT YOUR FAVORITE SPOT

Beef hit a record $9.64 a pound. Four companies process 85 percent of it.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THEY SOLD THE BAGEL.

Jun 30, 2026

•

3 min read

THEY SOLD THE BAGEL.

Three apps. One councilman. 43 percent on every $7 ticket. The receipts are on file.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

For The Culture

TOP CHEF CHANGED HOW NEW YORK JUDGES RESTAURANTS

Jun 20, 2026

•

2 min read

TOP CHEF CHANGED HOW NEW YORK JUDGES RESTAURANTS

Top Chef changed how people judge restaurants in New York, and most people don’t realize it.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN NEW YORK ANYMORE

Jun 17, 2026

•

3 min read

THERE IS NO INCENTIVE TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN NEW YORK ANYMORE

You notice it in small, repeated moments.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

ONE NEW YORK FEEDS THE CITY. THE OTHER ONE CHARGES $385 TO WATCH.

Jun 15, 2026

•

4 min read

ONE NEW YORK FEEDS THE CITY. THE OTHER ONE CHARGES $385 TO WATCH.

There are two New Yorks. You can find the split anywhere you look, but the kitchen shows it fastest.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THE THIRD ROUND IS GONE

Jun 15, 2026

•

4 min read

THE THIRD ROUND IS GONE

How GLP-1s rewrote NYC restaurant unit economics while the hospitality industry stayed silent.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

News Desk

THE CITY BUILT A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SMALL BUSINESS. 137 OWNERS SAY THEY CAN'T FIND THE DOOR.

Jun 12, 2026

•

3 min read

THE CITY BUILT A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SMALL BUSINESS. 137 OWNERS SAY THEY CAN'T FIND THE DOOR.

We surveyed 137 New York small business owners about the help that is supposed to exist for them. Not one reported a good experience. Here is what they told us.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THEY'RE FLYING IN A MILLION PEOPLE TO EAT MCDONALD'S

Jun 10, 2026

•

4 min read

THEY'RE FLYING IN A MILLION PEOPLE TO EAT MCDONALD'S

The World Cup hands New York the biggest crowd it has ever fed. The official menu is the same handful of logos those people left at home.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

Argument

ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMN QR CODE. GET ME A PROPER MENU.

Jun 10, 2026

•

3 min read

ENOUGH WITH THE GODDAMN QR CODE. GET ME A PROPER MENU.

You sit down ready to spend money, and before anyone says a word, you’re told to take out your phone.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

NEW YORK IS SPENDING BILLIONS ON HOMELESSNESS AND GETTING PERMANENCE IN RETURN

Jun 8, 2026

•

2 min read

NEW YORK IS SPENDING BILLIONS ON HOMELESSNESS AND GETTING PERMANENCE IN RETURN

New York is not underfunding homelessness. It is overfunding the wrong version of it.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

For The Culture

THEY RAN THE OBITUARY. THEY SKIPPED THE NEXT SENTENCE.

Jun 6, 2026

•

4 min read

THEY RAN THE OBITUARY. THEY SKIPPED THE NEXT SENTENCE.

Caputo's fed Brooklyn for 122 years. The food press covered the goodbye. Nobody covered where the 6,000 loaves a week go now.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

For The Culture

THE WETTEST SANDWICH IN NEW YORK IS NOT A MISTAKE

Jun 6, 2026

•

3 min read

THE WETTEST SANDWICH IN NEW YORK IS NOT A MISTAKE

Five families. Five boroughs. Zero coverage.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THEY BOUGHT YOUR CRM. THEY BOUGHT THE AD ENGINE TWO DAYS EARLIER.

Jun 5, 2026

•

4 min read

THEY BOUGHT YOUR CRM. THEY BOUGHT THE AD ENGINE TWO DAYS EARLIER.

DoorDash now owns the data on every guest who ever booked through SevenRooms. The same company also runs a billion-dollar ad business. The operator built the inventory.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

NEARLY $8B IN SNAP RUNS THROUGH NEW YORK. WASHINGTON JUST REDREW THE LINE FOR WHO GETS TO ACCEPT IT.

Jun 1, 2026

•

5 min read

NEARLY $8B IN SNAP RUNS THROUGH NEW YORK. WASHINGTON JUST REDREW THE LINE FOR WHO GETS TO ACCEPT IT.

The cut came dressed as a hunger story. Underneath it is a small-business closure program, and the corner store is the target.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THE GREAT NEW YORK COOKIE BOOM IS RUNNING OUT OF DOUGH

May 30, 2026

•

2 min read

THE GREAT NEW YORK COOKIE BOOM IS RUNNING OUT OF DOUGH

A cookie used to be the quietest thing in a bakery.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THE RESTAURANT LABOR PIPELINE COLLAPSED. NOW EVERYONE IS ASKING WHO WILL WORK THE KITCHEN.

May 28, 2026

•

3 min read

THE RESTAURANT LABOR PIPELINE COLLAPSED. NOW EVERYONE IS ASKING WHO WILL WORK THE KITCHEN.

For decades New York’s restaurant industry ran on a labor system that everyone relied on and almost nobody talked about.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THEY'RE SELLING GOWANUS AS THE NEXT AMSTERDAM. THE BLOCK THAT MADE IT IS GOING DARK.

May 25, 2026

•

4 min read

THEY'RE SELLING GOWANUS AS THE NEXT AMSTERDAM. THE BLOCK THAT MADE IT IS GOING DARK.

Something strange has been happening over the last few weeks.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
Load more

Property Of We Eat Here LLC