Candese Charles
Candese Charles is a regional reporter at What Now who covers new restaurants, food concepts, and related retail across multiple U.S. markets, with particular depth in Houston and Las Vegas. Her coverage is defined by close tracking of early-stage openings and expansion deals, using permits, franchise agreements, and detailed location data to show how brands enter and grow in local neighborhoods. She brings a TV news reporter’s emphasis on timeliness and concrete facts to a beat that centers on restaurant openings, chain expansions, and tenants for new mixed-use developments.
Franchise and Chain Restaurant Expansion
Charles focuses heavily on franchise and chain brands as they move into new territories or scale within a region. In Houston, she has covered Pepper Lunch’s multi-location rollout in the Greater Houston and Austin areas, detailing the franchisee group behind the brand, the number of planned units, and specific sites such as Missouri City, Springwoods Village, and Sugar Land. Her reporting on Brassica’s first Houston restaurant similarly spells out the chain’s Ohio roots, the precise address on Voss Road, and the targeted opening season, positioning the story within a broader pattern of out-of-market concepts entering Houston.
In Las Vegas, she has written on stalwart and national brands like Metro Pizza, Johnny Rockets, and The Coach Coffee Shop, emphasizing how established names are opening new locations within high-profile destinations and resorts. Across these stories, she consistently links brand narratives to concrete development milestones, noting how many locations are planned, the timeline for openings, and how those decisions fit into a longer-term growth strategy.
Permits, Deals, and Early-Stage Openings
Charles treats municipal permits, lease agreements, and tenant announcements as core reporting tools rather than background detail.
Her pieces on Alishan Bubble Tea and Amy’s Burgers in Las Vegas center on recently filed city permits and ongoing lease negotiations, using those documents to confirm addresses, centers, and suite numbers long before the concepts open to the public. She explains how a successful food truck like Amy’s Burgers is translating into a first brick-and-mortar location, noting the shopping center name, the specific unit within Longford Shoppes, and the fact that the deal is still being finalized while a physical location is clearly on the way.
In the Pepper Lunch and Brassica coverage, she draws on franchise development agreements and external trade reporting to show how multi-unit commitments and secured sites translate into a phased local rollout. This reliance on permits and deal documents gives her stories a forward-looking angle: she is often reporting on concepts months or years before opening, providing early insight into how a neighborhood’s food landscape is about to change.
Mixed-Use Destinations and Tenant Mix
Beyond standalone restaurants, Charles covers the broader tenant mix at major retail and entertainment developments. In Las Vegas, she has reported on tenants at destinations such as The Cliff and The Bend, writing about BODYROK, Pvolve, Visual Comfort, and Metro Pizza as part of larger open-air retail, dining, and entertainment projects.
Her stories describe how these fitness studios, home lighting brands, and restaurants fit into nine-figure developments, naming the projects, outlining their positioning, and identifying specific suites within the centers. By treating restaurants, retail, and fitness concepts as part of the same ecosystem, she shows how new tenants collectively shape the identity and draw of a destination rather than isolating food news from the surrounding real estate context.
This mixed-use lens recurs in her work across markets, including coverage of ONESWEAT as a retail tenant at a new Central Park Post Oak development and similar multi-tenant projects.
Multi-Market Food Coverage with TV News Roots
Charles works across the What Now network, filing stories on restaurant openings and concepts in markets ranging from Houston and Las Vegas to Miami Beach and Ottawa.
Recent headlines include a Southern Italian eatery with locations in Switzerland debuting in Miami Beach and D Spot Dessert Cafe expanding with a new shop in Ottawa, alongside her repeated coverage of Houston and Las Vegas openings. Her author bio and article bylines describe a career that moved from TV news reporting across several U.S. cities into specialized coverage of restaurants, retail, and real estate.
That background shows in her writing style: she favors clear chronology, direct quotes from brand partners and executives, and specific details on sites and timelines over lifestyle flourishes. She consistently positions food as central to her reporting focus, using each new restaurant or concept to illustrate how a city’s dining options and commercial corridors are evolving over time.
4 more food journalists.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What's On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose food and leisure coverage is built around immersive, first-person reporting and concrete detail. He works at the Manchester Evening News, focusing on new restaurant and bar openings, regular food reviews, gig and event coverage, and issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. He treats restaurants, pubs, bars and experiences as stories about place, people and community, explaining what makes a venue different and how it fits into the local dining scene. His pieces cover pricing, service, atmosphere, crowds and concept, and he is willing to be critical when gimmicks undermine the experience. He writes character-led pub profiles, works shifts, joins treasure hunts and attends major cultural events, inviting readers to follow what he does and use his straightforward assessments to decide where to eat, drink and spend time.
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd is editor at Secret Manchester, where she treats food as part of how people live in the city, not as an isolated subject. She covers restaurants, bars, street food and casual dining, linking new openings and food trends to neighbourhood change, local businesses and everyday routines. Her pieces focus on accessible spots, comfort dishes like pizza and tacos, and clear details of menus, presentation, atmosphere and practical information such as opening hours and booking. She often combines food, drink and live events, producing guides to venues for major sports tournaments and themed pop-ups as part of wider things to do. Alice also reports on hospitality business pressures, city-centre public spaces, charity initiatives, transport and infrastructure, always showing how food and drink fit into community and lifestyle stories. She previously wrote for other regional “Secret” sites as a staff writer and describes herself as a writer and food fanatic.
Aly Walansky
Aly Walansky specializes in service-driven food coverage that treats cocktails and dining as tools for celebration, focusing on how logistics, ordering options, and menu choices turn everyday meals and major holidays into shared experiences. She is a longtime food and travel journalist now writing for Forbes, where her beat centers on cocktails and occasion-driven dining. Her work includes practical, expert-driven roundups such as guides to many variations on the classic martini, shipped-meals gift lists for Mother’s Day, and accessible formats for Thanksgiving and other holidays. She reports through structured lists, restaurant features, and menu-focused profiles that highlight signature dishes and dining trends. Across outlets, she extends this approach to home cooking, grocery shopping, and recipes, and runs a newsletter that shares her current assignments and industry commentary.
Amy Clarke
Amy Clarke stands out for turning food trends, sustainability and rising costs into practical guidance. She writes about changing tastes, new ingredients, formats and dining habits, as well as budget-friendly sustainable eating, nutrition, food shopping and the pressures extreme weather places on small food businesses. Her work includes forward-looking trend round-ups, advice on eating sustainably on a budget, cheaper alternatives to expensive superfoods and a report on how ice cream vans manage heat, logistics and profitability. She works as a multimedia reporter for News Shopper Series, with past work published in Sutton & Croydon Guardian, Yahoo News UK and The Conversation. Clarke combines reported features with clear explainers, expert voices and step-by-step advice. She uses plain language, specific examples and practical tips to show what food changes mean for readers and businesses.