Melody Baetens
Melody Baetens is the restaurant critic and features reporter at The Detroit News, covering the Metro Detroit dining scene within a wider entertainment beat. Her work centers on news-driven coverage of restaurants, from openings and closings to ownership changes, food events and national recognition. She draws on more than 26 years of experience reporting on food, nightlife, music and local culture to produce a steady mix of reviews, news and service pieces that help readers decide where to eat and what is happening around town.
Restaurant openings, closings and ownership changes
Baetens is a primary source for timely news on restaurant openings and closings across Metro Detroit.
She regularly compiles roundups that track multiple new arrivals and shuttered spots in a single piece, such as her survey of 10 openings and eight closings in one recent month. Individual stories drill down on the stakes for long-standing businesses, including the planned closure of Capri Italian Bakery in Dearborn after more than 50 years and the decision to sell Amore da Roma, a historic Italian restaurant dating back to the Roma Cafe era. She also reports on expansion moves and new concepts, from AP Tommy’s, a 200-seat Greek and steak restaurant opening in West Bloomfield, to Dutch Girl Donuts adding a second location.
Her coverage of Michigan’s first Rock ’n’ Roll Sushi restaurant opening Downriver fits this same pattern: early, detailed reporting on how a new venue will operate, what it serves and where it fits in the local dining map.
Neighborhood favorites and dining guides
A recurring strand of Baetens’ work is guiding readers through specific neighborhoods and everyday food decisions. She publishes focused pieces on clusters of restaurants, such as her favorites in Southwest Detroit, highlighting street tacos, tortas, margaritas and other comfort foods in areas like Mexicantown, Hubbard Richard, Central Southwest and Springwells.
At the same time, she tracks the evolution of beloved staples, covering Dutch Girl Donuts’ second location as part of the city’s doughnut culture rather than treating it as a simple business brief. Service-oriented stories show up in smaller items as well, including practical guides to promotions like free Hudsonville ice cream pints at Cadillac Square, where she details flavors, timing and the lineup of local food trucks participating in the Downtown Street Eats program.
These pieces combine precise information with a clear sense of how residents actually eat and spend time in the city.
National spotlight on local restaurants
Baetens consistently connects the local dining scene to national recognition and broader trends. In her monthly openings and closings roundup, she notes when major outlets such as The New York Times single out Detroit restaurants like Roses Fine Foods and Tacos Wuey among their favorite places to eat in America. She devotes standalone coverage to honors such as the Bureau du Champagne’s list of top U.S. bars and restaurants for Champagne, where she explains why Hazel Park’s Mabel Gray is seen as a destination, citing its bottle list, Champagne Society and tasting events. Her reporting on contemporary Mexican restaurant Vecino details both its expansion to Cleveland and the run of national accolades that preceded it, including four-star reviews, inclusion on Esquire’s best new restaurants list and a James Beard semifinalist nod, along with mention in a New York Times roundup of top Mexican restaurants. Taken together, these stories show a critic who treats awards and lists as context for how local chefs are shaping a broader culinary conversation, rather than as isolated press releases.
Food events, nightlife and the wider entertainment beat
Beyond restaurant news, Baetens covers food-driven events and the intersection of dining with nightlife and music. Her listings focus on specific offerings and formats at Oktoberfest parties, chef dinners, harvest festivals and sustainability initiatives, from Bavarian beer-and-brat experiences at Alpino to plant-based menus tied to the Eat for Impact campaign, and large-scale gatherings like Detroit Harvest Fest’s lineup of roughly 40 food trucks.
She writes about cultural events that include a food component, such as a block party celebrating Mama Coo’s Boutique’s 10 years in Corktown, noting the mix of music, giveaways, kid activities and food that define the occasion. Coverage of immersive experiences like Elmwood Alight includes details on installations, live music and vendors such as the Deutchtroit food truck offering German-style cuisine, underscoring how dining fits into a wider night out.
On air, she brings the same perspective to interviews, discussing post-COVID dining booms, the challenges facing music venues, and the role of global flavors in the city’s restaurant growth, as well as breaking down what Michelin recognition means for Detroit and previewing a list of 25 new and returning restaurants expected to open across the region.
Her professional profile describes a remit that spans restaurants, events, nightlife, comedy and music, along with a weekly restaurant column that combines reviews, news and opinionated views on the dining scene. That breadth shows up in her coverage, which treats food as part of the city’s entertainment fabric rather than in isolation.
Baetens has worked at The Detroit News since 1999 and has served as the paper’s restaurant critic since 2019, building on earlier roles in features and entertainment reporting. Her long tenure and consistent output on restaurants, events and culture give her a deep, longitudinal view of how the region’s dining landscape has changed, from legacy bakeries and historic Italian institutions to contemporary Mexican destinations and Champagne-focused neighborhood spots.
For subjects tied to Metro Detroit dining, food events or the overlap between restaurants and nightlife or music, she is a natural fit when the story calls for clear, news-led coverage grounded in local detail.
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.