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Bill Addison is a singular voice in the food landscape of Los Angeles. The only regularly publishing restaurant critic there, he’s had a twenty-year career across America, in which time he’s been the national critic for Eater and has snagged a prestigious James Beard award along the way. Following the late Jonathan Gold at the LA Times he’s clear on his role in illuminating the LA experience.

I may have punched the air as I transcribed, wrote and edited this piece. I started Between Meals to write the things I can’t easily get commissioned (too niche, too weird, too personal), but also to have conversations like this, with people like Bill. Conversations that I think will inform the direction that I take and fill me with hope for not just written journalism, but media as a whole.

This interview comes in two parts, the first free to all and the second (which is about two thirds of the whole piece) for paid subscribers only. In that second part, below the paywall, we discuss amongst other things the breed of criticism he’d like to see, the city he’d want to be a critic in other than LA, the problem of “king making,” and the role if any of the traditional critic. He also talks about lessons from his career, when he realised what type of critic he wanted to be, and that “sometimes you have to be a little weird.”

You can hit subscribe on the buttons throughout or on the paywall. By doing so you’re not just getting the second half but you’re also supporting independent publishing.

There are points in our conversation that are specifically about America, but there are many themes that are prevailing across the globe, around social justice for instance. A common feeling that we agree on is that food journalism and restaurant reviewing is sometimes looked upon as “this posh, almost silly job,” says Addison. Put another way, there can often be a suggestion that it’s not real journalism. Of course, that’s not the case. Addison’s predecessor at the LA Times, Jonathan Gold was the first food critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his work at LA Weekly.

Addison says he’s very aware that early in his career he might insert himself more into the narrative but now, “I am less interested in that, or I'm the least interested in that than I've ever been,” he says. “I can't say that I don't occasionally say, 'my partner and I went to this restaurant for our anniversary' as a way to illustrate how I feel about how a place could function as a special occasion restaurant, but I am much more interested in telling the interesting narratives of the people behind the restaurant I'm reviewing. It's a form of subtle social activism to write something that illuminates.”

Addison knowingly quotes a much-repeated line about restaurant reviewing that many critics use: a big part of the job is analysing a restaurant's intentions or aims or ambitions and how well they're succeeding at those intentions and aims and ambitions, he says. “And while I absolutely still do that I'm also interested in telling those stories that illuminate the Los Angeles experience.”

“In much the same way that toward the end of his career, Jonathan didn't write many damning reviews of places, it's twofold because there's so much in this city in particular to write about that, unless it's a very high-profile restaurant that needs someone to speak to the elephant in the room, if it's just not a good restaurant for whatever reason, not succeeding for whatever reason. But beyond that, there's so much to choose from that how about I just illuminate what's good or interesting or nuanced? And that doesn't mean that even in positive reviews that I rave about every single thing I've tasted or experienced. But I'm in a very lucky position with that in Los Angeles.”

It's a “lonely position,” says Addision as although LA is an extremely populous city with a renowned and multi layered food scene, he is the “only regularly publishing restaurant critic left in Los Angeles proper.” Taking a step back to consider that, LA has a metro population of almost 12.5 million, and if the state of California were a sovereign nation its nominal GDP would make it the world's fifth largest economy.

It's not always been the case. Addison says that L.A. Weekly had a shift in ownership that doesn't invest in the kind of journalism that includes restaurant criticism, and L.A. magazine has had budget cuts, again following a change of ownership, and now does packages on best places to eat and the like. There is “some regular food coverage but they don't have a presence, they don't have a person who's in the trenches in restaurant culture,” he says. “I don't wish that for this city.”

Speaking in the second half of 2022 Addison flags that new leadership around food at the L.A. Times could bolster the number of voices around restaurant criticism. While the food section has recently been relaunched (of which I’m a subscriber), Addison confirms he’s still the lone voice of restaurant criticism but that the team has been bolstered with reporters who can add investigative and longform expertise to the city and the state’s food discourse.

Food can be contentious. It can open a door to culture but at the same time it can be at the heart of gentrification, and of the appropriation and bastardisation of cultures. I ask Addison about the role of restaurant criticism, especially in a city like LA, in showcasing the culinary diversity of communities. It’s a part of the conversation that isn’t as free flowing. Not because Addison has nothing to say, but because he realizes that he has much to say, and that he wants to pick his words carefully. He often stops, reframes and then continues. 

“I think that it is an equation in progress. It is tricky, tricky territory to talk about because on some level, everything can be seen as tokenism or performative,” he says. “When we eat at restaurants in these communities it's not just voyeurism or Columbus-ing, it's participating in that community. It's learning something about the world through something special and unique. And again, I speak for Los Angeles because there's so much here.”

I'm really grateful that when I first got here, I just felt like a kid in a candy shop. I could be like, I'm curious about food from the Republic of Georgia. And then Google, Google, Google, Yelp, Yelp, Yelp. Oh, look [this place] opened a couple months ago. Let me go check that out and see what's interesting there. I want to highlight something specifically regional from Mexico, not just the pan Mexican perspective. Okay, I'm going to go to this restaurant that showcases a specific kind of Afro Mexican cooking from the state of Guerrero. It just feels right to detail the breadth of Los Angeles in this way.” 

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