Seth Chitwood
Seth Chitwood reports for The Standard-Times on food and lifestyle stories that show readers where to eat and what to do, often using lists, guides, and polls built around local businesses and experiences. He focuses on the Greater New Bedford and SouthCoast area, highlighting restaurants, entertainment venues, and community events from ice cream shops and pizza places to movie marathons and Pride celebrations. His coverage blends service journalism with profiles, giving attention both to the places themselves and the people and ideas behind them, including local entrepreneurs, downtown advocates, and organizations working on inclusion and health.
Food and Drink Guides
Food and drink coverage is a core part of Chitwood’s work, often structured as rankings, polls, and roundups that invite readers to weigh in. He has written about TripAdvisor’s lists of New Bedford’s top-rated pizza and burger spots, asking readers whether they agree with the rankings and using the piece to spotlight individual restaurants and their appeal.
His coverage of new dining options includes a feature on two 20-year-olds opening a burrito shop on Rockdale Avenue, focusing on their menu choices and the idea that they offer the kind of food they themselves most want to eat. Through “Newbie” columns on places to drink wine and eat meatballs, he explores bars and restaurants from the perspective of someone learning the local scene, mixing straightforward descriptions of the food and drink with the experience of discovering these venues for the first time.
Chitwood also follows developments in restaurant concepts and hospitality, such as the opening of Cisco Brewers Kitchen & Bar and the broader redevelopment plans of a fifth-generation restaurateur. In a piece on ghost kitchens, he explains how delivery-only brands operate out of existing restaurant spaces, describing specific offerings like scallop cakes, mac and cheese, and specialty pizzas, and tying them back to the experience of ordering in on a rainy day.
Even when the focus is on entertainment or events, food is woven into the narrative, whether through food trucks at Pride celebrations or the “tasty twist” that accompanies a true-crime themed speakeasy experience.
Things to Do and Local Entertainment
Beyond restaurants, Chitwood consistently produces “things to do” guides that map out how people can spend their time in and around New Bedford. One roundup of rainy day activities points readers to museums, galleries, bars, escape rooms, arcade games, and ghost kitchens, framing each stop as part of a route that turns bad weather into an excuse to explore.
A summer favorites piece collects entertainment ideas across the SouthCoast, underscoring his role as a go-to writer for practical suggestions on outings and leisure. His “Newbie” columns extend this approach, pairing bowling alleys with meatball meals or wine bars with local scenery, always grounded in actual places and accessible experiences.
He covers cultural programming as well, such as a five-week Bill Murray Monday movie marathon at the Zeiterion, detailing the lineup of films and the structure of the series so readers can plan repeat visits. A feature on a serial killer–themed speakeasy leans into true-crime history and theatrical storytelling, but still emphasizes the event as something locals can attend, complete with food and drink. Across these stories, the format stays consistent: specific venues, dates, and activities presented in a clear, usable way, so the coverage functions as an informal guide to the area’s nightlife and entertainment scene.
Profiles of Local Entrepreneurs and Creative Ventures
Chitwood frequently turns from listings to deeper profiles of the people behind local businesses and creative projects. His story on young burrito-shop owners highlights their age, ambitions, and approach to building a menu that reflects their own tastes, framing the restaurant as both a business and a personal milestone. In his coverage of Cisco Brewers Kitchen & Bar, he follows a fifth-generation restaurateur’s plans for New Bedford’s future, explaining how hospitality and redevelopment intersect in their vision for a more vibrant waterfront and dining scene.
He also profiles a New Bedford native who redesigned the classic whale tail symbol into a clothing line with a mission, connecting the aesthetic choices to environmental advocacy and donations to organizations such as Oceana. These stories tend to combine business details - opening timelines, concepts, and offerings - with narrative about heritage, identity, and purpose, giving readers context about why these ventures matter to the community. The emphasis on mission-driven projects and generational ties shows that his interest in food and retail is not only about consumption, but about the local economy and civic identity.
LGBTQ+ Inclusion and Community Life
Alongside lifestyle and business coverage, Chitwood reports on LGBTQ+ inclusion in both healthcare and public celebrations, adding a community and equity dimension to his beat. In a healthcare feature, he examines how local providers take new steps to better accompany LGBTQ+ patients, describing changes in practice and the importance of patients feeling known and understood by their doctors.
His reporting outlines specific initiatives and voices, making the story as practical and grounded as his service pieces on restaurants and events.
He covers Pride Month with the same attention to detail, listing block parties, drag performances, live music, vendors, food trucks, and family-friendly gatherings scheduled across June.
The Pride coverage maps out where and when events happen, and highlights themes of diversity and inclusion, positioning the celebrations within the broader fabric of SouthCoast community life. Taken together, these stories show that Chitwood’s work is not limited to leisure; it also engages with how public spaces, health systems, and cultural events serve LGBTQ+ residents and contribute to a more inclusive local culture.
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.