The Neighborhoods That Food Media Always Forgets

Food coverage clusters in the same six neighborhoods. Here’s what’s happening outside those borders.

Every city has its food media darling neighborhoods. In New York it’s the Lower East Side and Williamsburg. In LA it’s Silver Lake and Los Feliz. In Chicago it’s Logan Square. These neighborhoods get written about because food writers live there, eat there, and pitch stories about what’s opening there.

Meanwhile, the best taco in the city is in a strip mall in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a good coffee shop. The best Vietnamese place is forty minutes from downtown in a community that’s been there for decades. The best bakery is in the neighborhood nobody’s talking about because nobody’s moved there yet.

How to find what the media misses

Follow the communities. Immigrant communities in particular tend to have exceptional food that never makes the “best of” lists because the writers aren’t there yet. Find the neighborhoods with strong community identity and start eating there. You’ll find things that nobody’s written about. That’s usually a sign you’re in the right place.