A magazine for the restaurant community
Secret Menu is a magazine for the restaurant community with stories that aim to inspire, inform, and connect. From first-hand interviews to features and photo essays, Secret Menu is a celebration of local restaurants, the communities they sustain, and the incredibly hard work of running a business.
So why Secret Menu, and why now? Secret Menu was founded on the belief that one’s restaurant’s story can inform or inspire one another. Each issue will explore the unique restaurant culture in a particular city, providing insight into how restaurants connect a neighborhood and how their stories connect to one another.
We hope those in the restaurant industry will find something in this issue to relate to, along with a salt-shake or two of information and inspiration for their own work. Ultimately, Secret Menu is a celebration of the restaurants that are integral to local communities.
Issue three: Philly brings its own
The third issue of Secret Menu takes on Philadelphia, with a culinary landscape built on taking risks, breaking rules, and rewriting the cliched underdog narrative. Philly’s restaurants are an extension of its tight-knit neighborhoods, fiercely loyal residents, staggering diversity and rich history — and this issue highlights some of the brilliant, fascinating people behind them. Read select articles from Secret Menu: Issue 3 here.
Issue two: Miami's almighty hustle
The second issue of Secret Menu explores Miami, one of the most inventive and diverse restaurant cultures in America. In a town buzzing with possibility, we meet many of the people whose grit, imagination, and passion are the secret sauce to the city’s vibrant restaurant culture. Read select articles from Secret Menu: Issue 2 here.
Issue one: Asian cooking in Los Angeles
One of the most unique things about Los Angeles is its explosion of food culture in the last ten years, namely Asian food. Close to 1.5 million people of Asian descent call Los Angeles home, and bring a myriad of cuisines that have enriched Los Angeles’s food scene. In this inaugural issue of Secret Menu, we go deep into the diverse Asian restaurant communities of LA forged by chefs and owners, with a look at how their businesses connect the neighborhood and their stories relate to one another. Each establishment, as Lisa Ling puts it in her intro letter, “is rich in stories of immigration, resilience, perseverance, triumph, innovation, and the preservation of culture.” Read Secret Menu: Issue 1 here.
