Beginning today, I’ll be posting piecemeal, online, the contents of Food & Dining Magazine’s Spring 2026 (Vol. 89) print issue.
In the aftermath of John Carlos White’s untimely passing, we all entertained a hope that the issue might yet be published in its traditional print format. However, an estate in probate bodes ill for the timeliness of material intended to be consumed prior to Kentucky Derby 152.
For now, I’m releasing my contributions only, for the simplest of reasons: I’ve given myself permission to do so. Other permissions surely will follow. Hopefully, in a week’s time, there will be a compendium of links uniting these installments.
After that, I’ll continue doing what I can to keep the magazine’s flame lit at the website and on social media, while awaiting a verdict. If I were clairvoyant, I’d provide readers with more detailed information about the future of Food & Dining Magazine. However, its ultimate disposition lies somewhere above and beyond my pay grade, with John’s family.
F&D has come to mean very much to me, and John’s loss has been an emotional challenge in ways I didn’t foresee. We talked often, and I’m serene in the knowledge that I thanked him often for his support of my writing during the past two decades. There are ways I can imagine the magazine continuing, tempered by the knowledge that without John’s presence, it couldn’t possibly be the same.
That’s life, I suppose.
By all rights, the past two months should have witnessed an outpouring of “40 Years in Beer” installments, which were paused as I worked on F&D’s Spring 2026 edition. Honestly, neither my head nor my heart has been in the effort apart from outlining the next few essays; see “emotionally challenge,” preceding.
I won’t kid you. I did some of my very best work as a beer planner while at Pints&union, the beer program was very successful, and it ended squalidly, stupidly and senselessly in 2023 amid Joe’s unresolved mental health issues.
Then, thanks to John Carlos White, my reinvention as a writer and editor provided just what I needed; frankly, I’ve seldom felt happier in a professional sense. Now F&D is in limbo. There’s a monthly social security check, and that’s pleasant enough, but what the hell am I going to do next to earn a few farthings?
It’s not depressing. It’s demoralizing....Read more
