Where are you based?
For the last 20+ years, I've been officially based in New York City. I have a rent-stabilized apartment in the West Village, which has pretty much kept me anchored there because my friends, family, acquaintances, and perhaps even strangers would have me committed to a mental institution if I were to give up such a gem of a living space. So the Dude abides! That said, sometimes I will officially sublet my place long term. I moved to Rome for more than a year to work on my first book, “An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town,” and in 2016 I moved to Berlin for a year—for no real reason except for an unyielding love of ham hock and to amuse myself by crossing the street on a red light while local infuriated Germans screamed “Respect zee light!” at me.
What topics and places do you cover?
I write for a lot of food and travel publications, traversing the globe in search of delicious stories. I'd say that 75 percent of the articles I write involve food and drink. Closer to home, I write about the New York City dining landscape for various publications. I have a master's degree in history and I like to spend the knowledge I earned in the process by placing the subjects of what I'm writing about into a larger historical context, which I think is an important part of any story—giving the reader a deeper, more nuanced understanding and appreciation of the subject and the influence of the larger historical and global forces that shaped it or colored our perception of it.
All that said, I occasionally deviate from food and drink—perhaps to give my digestive system a break. I recently went to the Czech Republic to write a profile for Smithsonian Magazine about a guy who makes replicas of historic pianos. We arranged all the details of our first meeting and when I first met his wife in person, she was a tad confused: after looking at my previously published articles on my website, she wondered how a “food writer” was going to spin this story into something food related. I laughed and said that no food would be eaten (or harmed) in the making of this story. It was simply a non-food assignment.
What you don't write about.
I get a lot of press releases (and then follow-ups) on things I have never (and probably never will) write about: feminine hygiene products, pet grooming products, luxury travel for the extreme .0001%. I also have no interest in going to and writing about Saudi Arabia, Mogadishu, or the Florida Panhandle (aka the “Redneck Riviera”)—unless I were there to write about why you maybe shouldn't go there. Oh yeah, Costa Rica, too: I'm perpetually fascinated by how people who go to Costa Rica—ziplining through the jungle is apparently an obligation—and somehow come back more annoying than before they went. “Pura Viiiiiida!”
And one more: I have no interest in writing about Djibouti, but I'd love to be their director of tourism and create tourism slogans like “Get Yer Booty to Djibouti!,” “Djibouti Call!,” and “Shake Yer Djibouti!”
What outlets do you usually pitch (and write for)?
Freelance writers like myself are dependent on our relationships with editors. And when an editor leaves a publication, it often means that we're then cut off from that publication too. (Until we cultivate a relationship with a new editor there, at least.) So the roster of publications I am writing for can change over the years. But generally, I've been writing for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, BBC Travel, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Smithsonian, Newsweek, Michelin, Westways (and various other AAA magazines), National Geographic Food, and the Telegraph (the latter two are based in the UK). I also annually update and write the Fodor's guidebook to New York City.
The best PR pitches include ...
My name. I always find it amusing when I get a PR pitch that starts with “Dear XX” or “Dear Cletus…” Actually, no one has ever sent me a “Dear Cletus” email but I'd be cool with that.
Are you in-house or freelance (or both)?
I've occasionally had part-time editing gigs to supplement my freelance income—I was the restaurant and nightlife editor at BlackBook magazine for a while and I spent 10 years as the New York City restaurant editor at Gayot.com; I also spent a decade teaching travel writing at NYU and Columbia University. But more or less, I'm a freelance writer these days.
What is your approach to press trips?
Maybe it's just my lack of talent, but it seems hard to write a good story—the kind of deep dives into places that I like to write—from a press trip, particularly a group press trip when there's one itinerary for everyone to follow and it doesn't leave a lot of time for individuals to pursue their particular interests in a place. Before I get on a plane, train, or bus, I already have an assignment, an angle, and several interviews already arranged, and I dedicate the majority of my time to that subject when I'm at the destination. So, press trip travel isn't really congruent with how I work.
What are your professional pet peeves?
Writers who are rude to PR people (not to mention restaurant servers, hotel staff, shop employees, etc.). Colleagues with big egos—we all have the same goal: we're just trying to pay our rent and have a little time to ponder the big questions in life, such as: is a hotdog a sandwich? It often reminds me of something the 8th-century CE Buddhist Indian philosopher Shantideva famously said: “All the happiness in the world stems from wanting others to be happy, and all the suffering in the world stems from wanting the self to be happy.”
In your past professional life, you were …
In high school in the Los Angeles area, I was in a rock band playing clubs in West Hollywood such as the Whisky A Go Go, the Roxy, and the Troubadour; in college in Santa Cruz, CA., I worked at an indie record store where I quietly judged people for buying the “wrong” kind of music; when I lived in Prague, I taught English as a second language; in graduate school in San Francisco, I worked the lonely midnight-to-8 am shift at the front desk of a boutique hotel, which is when I did the bulk of my school reading.
Where would you like to return to?
Some people like to judge others for going back to the same places again and again. I'm not one of those people; instead, I like to return to places I love. Not just because I dig the destination or that I have dear friends there, but because each visit grants me a deeper knowledge of the place, which—inshallah—might allow me to write more in-depth stories or I'll come across some cool random story that I wouldn't have normally found out about. (See my comment above about the guy who makes replicas of historic pianos outside of Prague.)
For that reason, I'm often returning to the places I love and have frequently written about: Prague, Rome, Vietnam, Spain (particularly Madrid, La Rioja, and the Basque Country), Belgrade, Istria, and the Republic of Georgia.
That said, places I've visited just once that I'm yearning to go back to are Kjiv, Sarajevo, Sicily, Laos, Galicia and Asturias in Spain, Cusco, Osaka, Mombasa, and Ethiopia.
What's on your bucket list?
Iran, but I'll never get there. Toward the end of the Obama Administration, US-Iranian relations were thawing and I was hopeful that I'd be able to finally travel to Iran. Alas, things have changed—of course, not just with US-Iranian relations, but the US vs. Most of the World relations.
Where do you travel for fun?
In New York, I have a cadre of friends (many of whom are food and travel writers as well) and we frequently travel deep into Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx (and gasp! New Jersey) to explore various enclaves. And by “explore,” I mean eating and drinking our way through neighborhoods where the denizens are often immigrants from some part of the world. There are neighborhoods where you can explore Guyana, Yemen, Thailand, Tibet, Nepal, Mexico, Ecuador, Korea, Portugal, Sri Lanka, China, Ukraine, Ireland, the Philippines, Albania, and Poland—all within a 45-minute subway ride.
Aside from that, once or twice a year I go to Southern California to visit my family and to La Rioja in Spain to visit my wife's family.
Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is …
One of the glories of travel is that after at least half of the trips we take, we return home with a fun, interesting, harrowing, and/or hilarious story to tell. I have at least a book's worth of those. My agent was recently shopping around my book proposal about a book of essays that combined those (hopefully) entertaining stories and the wisdom of Buddhist philosophy—the point was to (hopefully) give the reader a different take on the travel experience. A few publishing houses nibbled, some heavily, but in the end, I was left with an empty hook and walked away with no fish.
What advice would you give your younger professional self?
Don't eat that hot dog in the Bulgarian beach town on the Black Sea. You'll be sick in bed for days!
What nugget would you like to add that we haven't touched on?
How about some random thoughts and quotes?
• Jamon Iberico is 101 times better than Italian prosciutto.
• Do stoners in Europe call it 16:20?
• “It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh
• “When there is a great disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a great adventure.” — Pema Chödrön
• “The only love there is, is the love we make.” — Prince
• “The truth is different these days; it's more of a hunch you're willing to die for.” — Homer Simpson
How best should people contact you?
Check out my TravMedia profile or visit my website.
