Brittany Misencik
Brittany Misencik tracks the changing dining landscape for the Pensacola News Journal, focusing on how new restaurants, food trucks and food-focused venues reshape where people eat and spend time. Her reporting centers on openings, closures and concept changes, giving clear details on locations, timelines and what diners will find on the menu. She also covers food safety alerts and consumer-oriented news, connecting local shoppers and diners to the practical implications of recalls and national chains’ growth. Across her work she is a veteran dining reporter for the Pensacola News Journal and a community growth and development reporter with a stated interest in the American K‑12 education system.
Restaurant openings and closures
Restaurant openings and closings are a core strand of Misencik’s beat, where she treats each change as part of the broader evolution of the local dining scene.
She regularly covers new arrivals, such as Zam’s Bowls + Burritos occupying a former fast-food site, explaining how a concept’s menu and positioning differ from what was there before and what niche it aims to fill. In pieces on Fresh Monkee expanding into Gulf Breeze and on Wawa setting an opening date in Pace, she lays out key details like address, projected opening day and any launch promotions, while situating the business within larger brand or health trends.
Roundup stories such as “7 restaurants open in Pensacola area in August, 2 more coming soon” and “Pensacola diners, get ready for 8 new restaurants in the area” show her preference for concise, list-driven guides that help readers keep track of multiple openings at once. When a long‑standing spot like Taco Town prepares to close, she reports its departure as news in its own right, marking the loss of a familiar restaurant and documenting the timeline for regulars.
Food trucks, cafés and local concepts
Misencik devotes significant attention to independent operators, food trucks and cafés, highlighting how local entrepreneurs shape the area’s food identity. Her feature on the Cutie Patootie sandwich food truck, recognized as a top U.S. food truck by a national travel outlet, combines the owner’s path to launching the business with specific menu items and the truck’s movement between locations, portraying it as both a culinary and small‑business success story. Coverage of Firefly Café in West Pensacola introduces a “cozy café” concept built around healthy wraps, salads, smoothies, açaí bowls and coffee, framed as filling a gap in a corridor otherwise dominated by fast food. In reporting on True Grit Kitchen & Cantina, she tracks the restaurant’s shift under a new executive chef toward scratch‑made brunch and a refined food direction, using the chef’s background and changes in service hours to show how the concept is being reimagined. Across these pieces she tends to pair operational details - hours, formats, offerings - with narrative elements about owners’ goals, creating straightforward but textured profiles of local food businesses.
Dining guides, districts and family venues
Beyond individual restaurants, Misencik assembles broader dining and leisure guides that map how food fits into everyday and seasonal life. A fall‑activities feature listing more than 25 events in the Pensacola area includes dining reporter branding and integrates food‑related outings into a larger calendar, positioning restaurants, festivals and family experiences within one practical planning resource.
Her story on West Garden shops emphasizes that “there’s more to downtown than Palafox,” profiling businesses west of the main strip and showing how retailers and eateries are working together to draw attention to a less familiar commercial district. In coverage of Launch Family Entertainment, she treats the forthcoming entertainment park as both a family‑fun venue and a dining destination, explaining how food service is built into its “one‑stop shop” model and describing the local operators behind it.
This mix of neighborhood features, activity lists and venue previews reinforces her focus on how dining interlocks with shopping, recreation and family time across the area.
Food safety, chains and consumer context
Food safety and chain‑driven consumer topics round out Misencik’s remit, where she supplies clear, actionable information tied to everyday eating and grocery decisions. In a report on a Publix frozen berry recall upgraded to the FDA’s highest risk warning, she explains the risk level, the products affected and the regulatory context, while noting that such coverage sits alongside her work on restaurant openings, closures, food trucks, historical deep dives and trending food topics. Her Wawa piece does more than announce a store’s opening date; it references data on the chain’s footprint in Florida, illustrating how a national brand’s expansion affects local choices for fuel and food. Similar stories about health‑oriented chains like Fresh Monkee describe the company’s founding vision - high‑quality protein, good carbs, healthy fats and real ingredients in made‑to‑order shakes - and translate that branding into what patrons can expect at new area locations. Taken together, these articles show a reporter who treats corporate developments, safety alerts and brand narratives as part of the same consumer‑facing food beat, consistently grounding them in specifics that matter to local diners.
Across her dining work Misencik is repeatedly labeled a veteran dining reporter for the Pensacola News Journal, and many of her stories carry invitations to stay informed via the Pensacola Eats newsletter.
She encourages ongoing engagement by asking for news tips and directing readers to weekly email updates on restaurant news, signaling a beat built on continuous monitoring of openings, closures, trends and neighborhood food shifts. In her own professional bios she frames her role as community growth and development reporting with a special interest in the American K‑12 education system, but her recent output is concentrated on dining, food businesses and the way they intersect with local life.
The result is coverage that sticks to plain, practical reporting on where to eat, what is changing and how the food scene connects to the wider community.
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.