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Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

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

city hall

+1

A TOP CITY OFFICIAL TOLD US QUESTIONING A FOOD CART PERMIT BECAME A CAREER-ENDING MOVE

Oct 29, 2026

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5 min read

A TOP CITY OFFICIAL TOLD US QUESTIONING A FOOD CART PERMIT BECAME A CAREER-ENDING MOVE

The advocates who turned every permit fight into a justice fight won the rewrite, their former co-director now runs City Hall's vendor office, and the unlicensed cart outside your door has never passed a city health inspection.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THE MAIN COURSE IS THE WORST THING YOU CAN ORDER IN ANY NEW YORK RESTAURANT

Oct 27, 2026

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5 min read

THE MAIN COURSE IS THE WORST THING YOU CAN ORDER IN ANY NEW YORK RESTAURANT

The chef's best cooking is in the appetizers, and the entrée is how the room makes rent off you.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

LaGuardia

+3

DELTA CHARGES YOU LIKE A LUXURY AIRLINE AND TREATS YOU LIKE A BUS STATION CROWD

Oct 26, 2026

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6 min read

DELTA CHARGES YOU LIKE A LUXURY AIRLINE AND TREATS YOU LIKE A BUS STATION CROWD

Cancellations nearly doubled, the lounge line now beats TSA, and fifteen years of loyalty just ran out.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
RESTAURANT WEEK WAS BUILT TO LOSE MONEY AND NOBODY ASKED WHO STILL PROFITS

Oct 22, 2026

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5 min read

RESTAURANT WEEK WAS BUILT TO LOSE MONEY AND NOBODY ASKED WHO STILL PROFITS

The city's favorite dining tradition started as a PR stunt for convention delegates, and thirty four years later every beneficiary still sits upstream of the plate.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
UPSTATE FOOD IS AVERAGE. IT ONLY TASTES GOOD BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE.

Oct 19, 2026

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5 min read

UPSTATE FOOD IS AVERAGE. IT ONLY TASTES GOOD BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING ELSE.

About 60,000 New Yorkers moved up the Hudson, sold it as Brooklyn North, and now complain about city folks every October.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

city hall

+2

NEW YORK CITY WRITES RULES TO PROTECT YOU. THE FINE PRINT KILLS YOUR CORNER SPOT.

Oct 15, 2026

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5 min read

NEW YORK CITY WRITES RULES TO PROTECT YOU. THE FINE PRINT KILLS YOUR CORNER SPOT.

Every consumer protection in this city is a fixed cost, and fixed costs favor whoever has a legal department. City Hall admitted it in July. Then it did it again in October.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THE CITY THAT TURNED 500 VENDORS INTO FOUR NOW WANTS TO RUN STREET MARKETS

Oct 15, 2026

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5 min read

THE CITY THAT TURNED 500 VENDORS INTO FOUR NOW WANTS TO RUN STREET MARKETS

City agencies are positioning themselves as market producers. Their own operating record says keep them away from the block.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
NEW YORK LOST MORE RESTAURANTS THIS YEAR THAN IN THE PANDEMIC. MANHATTAN GOT OFF EASY.

Oct 14, 2026

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6 min read

NEW YORK LOST MORE RESTAURANTS THIS YEAR THAN IN THE PANDEMIC. MANHATTAN GOT OFF EASY.

Same citywide loss as 2020, down to the decimal. Completely different victims. The borough that gets written about is the one that stopped bleeding.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

Operators

+2

He came with fifty dollars and his knives and the restaurants are not the empire

Oct 5, 2026

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6 min read

He came with fifty dollars and his knives and the restaurants are not the empire

José Andrés found the one asset in American food that compounds, and it was never the dining room.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

Little Italy

+3

Italian-American Food Is Better Than Italian Food. New York Has Been Proving It Since 1925.

Oct 2, 2026

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4 min read

Italian-American Food Is Better Than Italian Food. New York Has Been Proving It Since 1925.

Not more authentic. Better. And the people who cannot say that out loud have never had to sell a plate to a stranger.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
The Special Is the Only Dish in New York Sold Without a Price on It

Oct 1, 2026

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6 min read

The Special Is the Only Dish in New York Sold Without a Price on It

Long Island made the unpriced verbal special a fineable offense in 2008, and the restaurant industry's city lobby argued that was none of a legislature's business.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

the-argument

The City Does Not Reward Good Operators. It Rewards Operators Who Can Afford The Process.

Sep 15, 2026

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6 min read

The City Does Not Reward Good Operators. It Rewards Operators Who Can Afford The Process.

Ten years of night markets, more than 1,500 operators scored, and one conclusion I have not been able to unlearn.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

west village

+3

THE SELLOUT WAS THE BUSINESS PLAN AND YOU WERE THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

Sep 9, 2026

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5 min read

THE SELLOUT WAS THE BUSINESS PLAN AND YOU WERE THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT

Salt Hank's sold to a $9 billion company fourteen months after opening, and the grief cycle that followed is the most dishonest ritual in food.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

Argument

Rent Did Not Close Your Restaurant. I Can Show You the Four Numbers That Did.

Aug 6, 2026

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5 min read

Rent Did Not Close Your Restaurant. I Can Show You the Four Numbers That Did.

An operator's case against the most comfortable story in New York food.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma

State Of The Street

THE $28 LUNCH IS NOT WHY YOU CAN'T AFFORD NEW YORK CITY

Jul 30, 2026

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5 min read

THE $28 LUNCH IS NOT WHY YOU CAN'T AFFORD NEW YORK CITY

The advice is meal prep. In this city, the grocery aisle got more expensive than the restaurant did.

Marco Shalma
Marco Shalma
THE WATER BILL IS THE NEW RENT

Jul 14, 2026

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Property Of We Eat Here LLC