A letter from our editor.
For more than twenty years, John Carlos White was my friend and sparring partner, the driving force behind Food & Dining Magazine — and a singular figure in Louisville’s media landscape.
I met John in the Louisville Eccentric Observer offices in the early 2000s. At that time, I was writing a dining column called “Toque de Ville,” and John, I think, was managing advertising. At our first encounter, he made an offhand suggestion that I review one of his advertisers. I made a counterproposal — and that set the tone for more than two decades of cheerful debate.
That particular argument never came up again, though John loved telling stories about advertisers and could happily expound on the theory and practice of marketing a magazine.
In 2003, when John told me his idea for Food & Dining, I was skeptical. Louisville’s dining scene was strong — but so was its media coverage. I gave the magazine six months (though I did agree to write for those first issues).
John, of course, proved me gloriously wrong.
Through recessions, a pandemic, and the rise of digital media — where we now have a strong presence, thanks largely to my friend and colleague Roger Baylor — Food & Dining has survived and flourished. While many of the media outlets that dominated the market in 2003 folded or shrank, John kept expanding his vision.
To realize that vision, John teamed with photographer Dan Dry, whose images have defined the magazine’s look since the first issue.
Over the years, John also assembled a community of distinctive writers and encouraged them to write in their own voices — never in a “house style.” John respected craft and valued individuality.
He also, as anyone who ever picked up the magazine or looked at it online will know, had a legendary fascination with maps, an obsessive determination to know about and personally document every restaurant in our coverage area, and a quixotic ambition to track every opening and closing of all our independent restaurants in every quarterly issue.
I was astonished when prior to the first issue he hired a bunch of folks, gave them lists of licenses and permits, and had them fan out around the city to visually confirm that they were open. Just a...Read more
