Janet Patton
Janet Patton covers restaurants, bars, food and bourbon for the Herald-Leader, with a beat that ties everyday dining news to the business and regulatory forces shaping the hospitality and spirits industries. Her coverage stands out for tracking openings, closings, health inspections and menu trends alongside distillery fires, corporate shake-ups, bankruptcies and new whiskey releases. She brings an award-winning business reporting background to food coverage, giving stories about restaurants and bourbon a hard-news edge that goes beyond generic lifestyle reporting.
Restaurants news and trends
Patton reports continuously on restaurant openings and closings, from long-standing tenants in developments such as Hamburg Pavilion and Richmond Road to new concepts moving into former chain locations. Recent work includes tracking another Hamburg Pavilion restaurant closure, new restaurants coming to a high-profile Richmond Road spot, and what is planned and when.
She follows new arrivals closely, covering first restaurants in mixed-use projects, new breakfast and lunch cafes, and niche offerings such as a New Mexican-inspired breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant and authentic Chilean street food.
She treats restaurant churn as a data story, asking how many restaurants have closed so far this year and compiling roundups of “25 new restaurants” opening soon and “45 places to try”.
Her beat includes chain dynamics, documenting abrupt closures of popular chicken chains, Starbucks locations and other national brands while also noting franchise plans eyeing the area for expansion. She regularly reports on health department actions, explaining why the health department closed restaurants, why specific locations were shut down, and when they were allowed to reopen after reinspection.
Alongside these news pieces, she covers bakery and café moves, including new doughnut shops, bakeries offering Asian-style pastries and shaved ice, and doughnut shops relocating after several years.
Bourbon and spirits business
Bourbon and spirits are a central strand of Patton’s work, where she moves beyond tasting notes to cover company leadership changes, legal risks and operational crises.
She has reported on a bourbon maker accused of secretly filming guests having sex, including at a high-profile property, and the subsequent removal of a parent company CEO after allegations he secretly filmed sex acts. She covers distillery fires in detail, writing about what burned and what remains at historic sites such as Old Crow, and explaining what is known when a historic bourbon distillery catches fire.
Her spirits coverage includes major distillery purchases and what companies plan to do next, as well as new series and experimental releases from producers such as Four Roses, Buffalo Trace and Brown-Forman. She follows corporate tensions, including Brown-Forman family splits over failed mergers and declining stock prices, and questions about renewed talks on potential mergers.
Patton treats whiskey as a business beat, covering national alcohol distributors filing bankruptcy and the implosion of RNDC, a bankruptcy tearing a hole in wine and spirits. She also reports on educational and tourism infrastructure, such as Moonshine University closing after helping launch nearly 300 distilleries and bourbon camps at major distilleries.
Product-focused stories on new releases, annual limited runs, ready-to-pour cocktails and auction lots of confiscated bourbon sit alongside these business pieces, giving readers both the market context and specifics on what bottles are coming to shelves.
Bars, coffee and casual dining
Patton’s beat extends to bars, taprooms and coffee chains, where she treats openings and closures as part of a broader shift in how and where people drink. She has covered new sports bars aiming to be game-day homes for fans, distillery tasting rooms and whiskey social clubs opening in downtown areas, and bars known for glass-blowing studios preparing big moves.
Her stories look at unique concepts such as a transatlantic bourbon brand launching an English-inspired pub and Tiki cocktail competitions where readers can help judge.
She follows coffee culture closely, reporting on drive-thru coffee chains expanding with new locations, coffee kiosks opening with charitable angles such as Caffeine for a Cause, and beloved independent coffee shops announcing expansions or permanent closures. Wine and casual dining also feature, including wine bars adding larger sister concepts with food, private social clubs opening dining options to non-members, and new breakfast and lunch spots offering soups, sandwiches and signature desserts like special bread pudding. Across these pieces, Patton connects beverage and bar news to real estate, development and consumer trends, highlighting how new venues fit into emerging entertainment districts and mixed-use projects.
Business reporting background
Patton is described as an award-winning business reporter who covers restaurants, bars, food and bourbon and has also reported on agriculture, gambling, horses and hemp.
That background shows up in her current beat, where she takes on complex business stories such as horse farms worth tens of millions of dollars, major brewery bankruptcies, the sale of troubled whiskey empires and large-scale distributor failures. She reports on changes at malls and mixed-use properties, venue closures as major tenants expand, and data center fights that intersect with bourbon tourism projects.
Her business lens is evident in coverage of apparel store closures, national alcohol distributors owing hundreds of millions of dollars, and corporate responses when Jack Daniel’s rebuffs renewed bids from rival spirits companies. She also writes about media and sports-business crossovers, including new bourbon partnerships tied to major sports venues and changes across local newscasts following newsroom mergers. Across topics, Patton applies a consistent focus on financial stakes, corporate decision-making and regulatory or legal pressure, which distinguishes her from food writers who center only on dining experiences.
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.