This post originally appeared on August 17, 2019, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

This week, in Alison Roman’s lovely piece on what to do with all the summer fruit that’s flooding the farmer’s markets right now, she wrote that August is full of “long, lazy days of abundant sunshine” and “endless streams of extremely cold wine.” It’s a month where “work tends to mellow out, if subtly.” If that rings true for you, you are doing it right. Great work. I’m very happy for you.

I DID happen to buy plums at the market by my office to make this favorite ditty Tuesday night, but for the most part, this piece — and its mention of spontaneous trips to the beach — filled me with pathetic longing.

That’s a long way of saying I didn’t have time for much more than the news roundup this week so let’s get to it.

On Eater

• Intel: Whole Foods workers called out corporate parent Amazon for partnering with Palantir, a company that provides data to ICE; LA fine dining veteran Melisse will reopen as two concepts: a tasting-menu experience called Melisse and a casual section called Citrin; the chef behind award-winning new D.C. restaurant Himitsu sold the restaurant to his business partner, Carlie Steiner (who seems pretty cool); a Philadelphia cream cheese ad was banned in England for relying “on the stereotype that men were unable to care for children as well as women”; Four Loko is back and bucking the trends with a high-ABV seltzer; LA’s Ray Garcia has another big downtown restaurant in the works; the team behind Maison Premiere will open a roof bar in London with the Hoxton hotel; a fun-looking Tiki bar opened in Miami; Tartine opened an all-day cafe in Hollywood; WW (aka Weight Watchers) launched a troubling app for kids; chef Pim Techamuanvivit opened Nari, her spinoff of Michelin-starred Kin Khao in SF; D.C.’s Korean mainstay Mandu will be reborn by the end of the month as Anju; and hotly anticipated Filipino restaurant Manga opened its doors in Portland on Thursday.
• How the corn dog became the must-eat food of American presidential candidates, plus Pete Buttigieg’s epic day of eating at the Iowa State Fair.
• To buy: kitschy cocktail vessels and AND the only three knives you need.
• Everything you need to know about fröccs, Hungary’s spritz.
• Beautiful long read offering a behind-the-scenes look at a modern-day stagiere.
• Get some Eater IRL with luxury trips in major dining cities and pop-up dinners in New York and Brooklyn.
• Just order the cheapest bottle of wine.
• A cool chef hack on the Costco rotisserie chicken.
• The latest trend in restaurant design is “Southern Californian.”

This week on the podcast

This week on Eater’s Digest, Daniel and I learn everything we can (in 20 minutes) about natural wine, with special guest Joe Campanale. We also discuss the week’s biggest food stories, including the controversy around restaurant investor and developer Stephen Ross.

Off Eater

• Beloved New York restaurant Kopitiam is half-run by teens. [The Ringer]
• Saveur has a new editor-in-chief. [WWD]
• My pal Kelsey over at Curbed has a great 101 on wallpaper that’s inspiring me to take a second look at my rental apartment. [Curbed]
• A profile of Momofuku’s impressive and young new CEO. [NYT]