VanMag Restaurant Awards Update: Not This Spring

As I’m sure you’ve read in both our editorial director and our publisher’s letters, we’ve made the not-really-that-difficult decision to delay both our Restaurant Awards issue and the attendant ceremony. Obviously having 700 people in the basement of a hotel is a ludicrous idea, but even putting out the issue—when so many of the award winners will be facing the biggest challenge of their careers—seemed tone deaf.

So here’s what we’re going to do: take it day by day. We’re tentatively scheduling the event and issue for September and hopefully by then there’ll be a huge, positive reasons to celebrate the restaurant community and help launch it on the path to recovery. But until then, here’s what else we’re going to do: we’re going to keep the spirit of the Restaurant Awards burning bright by diving into the archives and pulling back the covers on some of the behind-the-scenes surprises and how they came about in past years (and given that I’m the only guy who knows who this year’s winners are, there might be an Easter egg of two in these write-ups).

And on a broader level, we’ll still be here finding the ups and shining light on the many downs the industry is experiencing as we speak. We consider it a privilege to have an audience that is so engaged in the eating and drinking community, and we promise you that we’ll continue to strive to cover it for you during these toughest of times.