Cassidy Waigand
Cassidy Waigand tracks how restaurants and food businesses change across the Peoria area, with a steady focus on new openings, seasonal favorites and the stories of the people behind them. She covers food for the Peoria Journal Star, and her reporting turns routine dining news into clear, service‑oriented coverage that helps readers decide where to eat and why these local spots matter.
Restaurant openings and local dining landscape
Waigand’s core coverage follows new restaurants and food ventures as they launch and evolve in the region. She reports on openings across formats and cuisines, such as a piece highlighting new restaurants serving dishes from fajitas to pizza in East Peoria, laying out what is new, where it is located and what diners can expect. She routinely breaks down the concept, menu focus and ownership story for new spots, giving readers a quick but concrete sense of the experience on offer.
Her work emphasizes the broader dining landscape rather than single‑dish reviews. When she covers a new restaurant in a notable building or neighborhood, she situates it in the local context and explains how the business fits into existing options nearby. The reporting is practical and descriptive, built around details like location, hours, menu style and price point, which gives communications teams at restaurants and food businesses a clear sense of what information she is likely to prioritize.
Seasonal food coverage and recurring traditions
A second strand in Waigand’s work is seasonal food coverage that tracks openings, closures and rituals tied to specific times of year. In a guide to when area ice cream stands open for the season, she lists individual stands and their opening dates, providing a calendar‑style snapshot readers can use to plan outings. She applies the same approach to other seasonal openings, such as long‑running ice cream shops returning under familiar owners, where she combines operational details with brief history and quotes to show the continuity of a local favorite.
Her seasonal pieces are built around utility: they foreground operating hours, opening windows and any changes from prior years, and they often group several businesses into one roundup. This makes her work a reference point for businesses that rely on seasonal traffic or special events. She gives attention to long‑standing establishments as well as newer ventures, reinforcing the sense that traditions and novelty sit side by side in her food beat.
Profiles of owners and signature local spots
Beyond openings and calendars, Waigand also writes more narrative‑driven pieces that spotlight particular restaurants and their owners. In a feature on longtime ice cream shop owners who revived a Morton creamery, she details how the business operates seasonally, outlines its hours, and uses quotes from the owners to convey their motivation and the joy they take in serving the community. These stories blend informational coverage with human interest, showing how individual operators shape the region’s dining scene.
Her work frequently touches on standout local spots that have become favorites, whether through personal selections or reporting on what makes a restaurant a “go‑to” choice for diners. In these pieces, she highlights factors like consistent quality, atmosphere and service, offering a concise portrait of why certain venues hold a special place in the area’s food culture. She keeps the tone grounded and fact‑focused, relying on specifics rather than superlatives.
Newsletter and ongoing dining updates
Waigand extends her food reporting into a regular dining newsletter that delivers restaurant news and updates directly to subscribers. In social posts promoting this newsletter, she references “PJStar Dining” and teases upcoming coverage, including new food and drink businesses and plans across the dining scene. The newsletter format allows her to compile multiple items in one place, from openings and menu changes to special events.
This newsletter work reinforces her role as a continuing source of local restaurant intelligence rather than an occasional feature writer. It suggests an ongoing, beat‑driven approach where she tracks incremental changes, stays in contact with owners and readers, and surfaces smaller updates that might not merit a full standalone article. The combination of beat reporting, seasonal guides, owner profiles and newsletter updates marks her coverage as systematic and service‑oriented, closely tied to how people in the area actually choose and experience food venues.
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.
Alice Mannette
Alice Mannette blends service journalism with narrative reporting about everyday life, using local food and gathering places to tell broader stories about community. She writes for the St. Cloud Times, focusing on practical guides to ice cream shops, wineries and other neighborhood businesses. Her coverage turns questions like where to eat and what to do this weekend into portraits of local entrepreneurs, weekend plans and the social life of her area. She reports food and drink as usable guides while tracing local history, culture and public safety. She also covers how people record their lives, writing features on diaries, family history and new books that examine archives and memory. Alongside this, she reports civic and public safety news and produces USA TODAY Network service pieces that compile clear, concrete resources for people dealing with storms and other emergencies.
Amanda Mactas
Amanda Mactas links food news, pop culture, and practical consumer advice, showing how brands, products, and personalities appear in everyday eating. She is an associate editor at Delish, reporting news and feature stories that span celebrity-driven launches, competitive eating, value-focused roundups, and taste tests. Her beat covers food culture, event-driven food deals, brand campaigns, product testing, grocery finds, and shopping guides, all with a clear service angle. She reports through specific products, personalities, and major sports days or holidays, using them to explain broader trends, marketing tactics, and consumer value. Beyond Delish, she works as a freelance writer and editor across food, travel, health, and lifestyle outlets, profiling founders, public markets, restaurant culture, wellness, and travel, and tying everyday eating to place, wellness, and routine in accessible, utility-focused prose.
Amelia Jones
Amelia Jones is a Fox 4 News reporter who makes major moments in Texas life feel close by centering ordinary people, often through food, fandom and everyday routines. She now reports across web, on-air and social video, keeping the camera and narrative on fans’ faces, crowd noise and local venues as she covers World Cup visitors trying Tex-Mex, FIFA fan festivals and standout supporters whose energy defines the stadium mood. She explains state legislative debates on issues like abortion pills in clear, practical terms, breaking down complex bills and legal analysis into real-world consequences. She reports on trials, crime, explosions and traumatic incidents through witnesses, victims and families, and spends time with small business owners and neighborhood groups in East Dallas. She joined Fox 4 News in 2023 and links daily life to the larger forces that shape Texas.