Welcome to Open Tab, a weekly roundup of the news, gossip, and stories that have stayed open in my tabs all week. Last time we covered Gen Z’s rising alcohol consumption rates.
We’ve officially entered that moment in summer when everyone leaves town. Usually that means I’m alone in the city, an opportunity to walk into restaurants that usually have a line out the door.
This year, though, I have found myself traveling. Last weekend I was on Martha’s Vineyard where I paid an arm and a leg for farmstand cherry tomatoes that I used in a bright no-cook cherry sauce—a welcome light lunch during a very humid weekend.
If you’ve also been feeling like your (non-farmstand) cherry tomatoes have been more expensive, you’re not alone. We’re in the midst of the biggest grocery price hike in half a century. Grocery prices have increased 33% in the US since the beginning of 2019 according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The USDA’s Economic Research Service predicts those prices will further rise another 2.9% in 2027. Yikes.
Unrelatedly, our ingenious food editors publish a monthly column of clever ways to stretch (affordable!) pantry staples into (delicious!) dishes. Juuuuust leaving that there for the next time you crash out after seeing the price of eggs or whatever.
Okay! No more bad news! I was thrilled to read about some of the nontraditional benefits restaurant workers are receiving—cocktail recipe royalties, educational exchange programs, and, yes, occasionally also healthcare. I also loved reading about Times Magazine writer Willy Staley’s adventures into the steak and sauerkraut diet which has taken D.C. by storm. The wide eyed earnestness of medical professionals he quotes recommending steak for all three meals reminds me of the fervor with which one woman told me she hadn’t eaten a vegetable in three years when I wrote about the ever-popular carnivore diet years ago.
In case you missed it: We also have a fabulous read on the new Bourdain biopic from his longtime assistant and co-author, writer Laurie Woolever, who checked in with friends and Bourdain family members about their feelings on the film.
Also in this week’s Open Tab: More food safety failures, an unfiltered look at our current snack-based hyperreality, and the current golden age of the pickle.
The summer of food safety fails
A couple weeks ago I dubbed this season Hot Bacteria Summer. Unfortunately, it seems, I was more correct than I knew. Cyclosporiasis is spreading—an anonymous source told the New York Times that the CDC has linked the outbreak to six more states (Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire and North Carolina), bringing the total states affected to 15. Two people in Michigan have died from the parasitic infection, though Michigan’s department of Health and Human services wrote in a statement that they both had “significant underlying health conditions.”
But that’s not all! Chipotle has removed jalapeños from their restaurants after at least 110 people in Minnesota were made ill by Salmonella. Plus, reporting in the LA Times revealed that Taco Bell’s parent company was made aware of the risk of cyclospora in its lettuce weeks before it alerted the public. It’s a bad week to be a fast casual chain in America—stock prices of both Taco Bell and Chipotle took a significant dip this week.
