Alex Mitchell
Alex Mitchell is a features reporter at the New York Post who focuses on food and lifestyle stories with a strong New York focus. His reporting centres on restaurants, chefs and food businesses in New York City and Long Island, told through vivid human stories rather than pure industry news. He distinguishes himself by treating burgers, pizzerias, supper clubs and even ice cream boats as windows into local culture, trend shifts and the way ordinary people experience dining.
New York and Long Island restaurant stories
Mitchell consistently covers openings and expansions in the regional restaurant scene, highlighting how well-known names move into new neighbourhoods and formats. In his piece on the chef-owner of Emilio’s Ballato launching a Long Island red-sauce joint, he tracks the transition from a celebrity-packed Houston Street institution to a Nassau County supper club, detailing the partnership, the revamped space and the hybrid menu in concrete, specific terms.
He reports closely on menu signatures such as meatballs and experimental dishes like a chicken cordon bleu cacio e pepe, using them to show how a new concept balances heritage and innovation. In other work, he follows local operators such as Greenpoint’s 20 Gram Café, explaining how an understated Brooklyn grocery café suddenly sells up to 1,300 sliders a day and runs out over weekends, tying operational strain and neighborhood buzz to the restaurant’s rise.
His coverage of a tight-knit Long Island boating family selling homemade ice cream at sea fits the same pattern, turning a small enterprise into a detailed portrait of place, routine and customer appeal.
Burgers, slices and price-conscious dining trends
Mitchell returns frequently to burgers, pizza and everyday dining as a way to explain price pressure and hype in the city’s food culture. In his story on a $2.55 slider that becomes an overnight sensation, he anchors the narrative in the exact price point, the size of the burger relative to a familiar chain and the volume of daily sales, framing the item as both a budget-friendly find and a phenomenon straining the kitchen.
His coverage of Hamburger America in Soho follows a self-described hamburger scholar opening a dedicated burger joint, connecting documentary work, travel and published guides to the decision to launch a focused restaurant. Through that lens he shows how a concept built around one classic patty and a midwest-inspired smash burger taps into nostalgia, expertise and branding rather than novelty alone. Beyond individual venues, he seeks out New Yorkers’ views on issues like $5 becoming the benchmark price for a slice of pizza and whether “guilt tipping” on payment tablets has gone too far, presenting cost and etiquette debates as part of everyday dining. These pieces make his food coverage useful for stories that hinge on how regular city residents experience inflation, tipping norms and the changing baseline for a quick meal.
Human-interest, wagers and consumer stories
Human stakes are central to Mitchell’s work, whether the subject is a restaurant, a vacation or a friendly bet gone public.
He has covered Long Island grandparents who spent $23,000 on a dream European vacation only for the travel agency to vanish, focusing on their loss, efforts to seek accountability and the emotional weight of a ruined trip. In the story about the owner of Pat’s King of Steaks cooking at a Long Island pizzeria in Knicks gear after losing a wager, he captures the personalities of both restaurateurs, the terms of the bet and the playful humiliation of a Philadelphia icon working in rival colors.
That piece blends food, fandom and neighborhood rivalry, showing how a simple agreement between two business owners becomes a public event worth chronicling. His feature on a boating family selling ice cream on the water uses family dynamics, routine routes and customer interactions to turn a small-scale enterprise into a human-interest snapshot rather than a pure business brief. Across these examples, his reporting tends to foreground people’s voices and choices, making food and consumer stories feel grounded in lived experience.
Sports and pop-culture flavor in food coverage
Mitchell often threads sports and pop culture through his food and features pieces, giving them an additional angle beyond dining.
Before his current role, he worked as a Yankees beat reporter, and that background surfaces in his comfort tying restaurant stories to team rivalries and fan identity. The cheesesteak–Knicks wager article is a clear example, where the final score of a playoff game dictates a day of work at a rival’s pizzeria and a full outfit of opposing team gear, turning a sports result into a food-world spectacle. His professional profile highlights ongoing interests in sports and iconic television, which align with stories that lean into playful references and recognizable cultural touchstones.
This mix means he is well suited to pieces where a food hook is intertwined with sports loyalties, long-running fandoms or character-driven narratives rather than purely culinary analysis.
4 more food journalists.
Aaron Guerrero
Aaron Guerrero is head of the digital department at Miami’s Community Newspapers, where he pairs restaurant coverage with community-facing content. He focuses on how Miami-area restaurants evolve, celebrate, and experiment through new concepts, menus, and neighborhood-focused dining experiences. He reports on restaurant openings, such as an Italian food hall at Plaza Coral Gables, new executive lunch menus, and wood-fired Latin steakhouse brunches, explaining what sets each venue apart. He also covers awards, like a Wine Spectator honor for an Italian chophouse, and events that turn dining rooms into social hubs. His bylines extend to features on sports-themed gatherings, civic renamings, local visits to restaurant programs, sponsored community pieces, and official notices. His work is straightforward and descriptive, helping readers and local businesses connect around specific openings, promotions, and dining experiences.
Aarron Fleming
Aarron Fleming reports on how courts, jails and public safety systems work over time. He is a reporter at The Daily Memphian covering public safety, the local court system, suburban news and business developments in North Mississippi. His work follows trials, sentencing, appeals, plea deals and judicial decisions, including major cases tied to Tyre Nichols and rapper Young Dolph. He also covers jail conditions, inmate deaths, crime data, prosecution units, trafficking, shootings and public-order incidents. His suburban reporting examines cannabis businesses, restaurant openings and how commercial growth affects communities such as Olive Branch. Fleming previously covered education in the same newsroom. He uses clear, unadorned prose to explain legal steps, deadlines, institutional problems and the political, commercial and community effects of public-safety decisions.
Alana Al-Hatlani
Alana Al-Hatlani is a food writer and editor who treats recipes, restaurants, and food features as ways to explore culture, community, and the business of eating. She works on the food team at Southern Living, overseeing and contributing to print recipes and reported features. Her pastry-focused, restaurant-tested perspective comes from time in restaurant and bakery kitchens. She helps plan and write monthly food packages, including “The South’s Most Treasured Desserts,” and wrote “8 Summer Recipes Our Editors Make Every Year.” She also writes recipe tips, ingredient explainers, restaurant guides, and reported stories about workers, owners, and communities. Her subjects include regional specialties, dining scenes, kitchen basics, and food industries. Her work has appeared with OpenTable and Yahoo. She reports on the ground, explains techniques clearly, and connects specific dishes and places to larger stories about food and livelihood.
Alana Edgin
Alana Edgin is a business reporter whose strongest focus is food, restaurants and consumer-facing businesses. She works at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and has also had work syndicated across AOL and Yahoo News. She covers new openings, closings, expansions and franchise growth, along with retail, health, services, corporate news, data incidents, business support programs and sponsorships. Her reporting includes detailed roundups of new restaurants and businesses, coverage of El Pollo Loco’s opening, and stories on burger trucks, dessert shops, Vietnamese sandwich restaurants and gourmet markets. She also contributes to food and drink reviews, including fall coffee and jerky comparisons. Edgin reports with practical “what, when, where” details, structured comparisons and clear explanations of how offers, partnerships and business changes affect consumers and the local economy.