At The Infatuation, we write about and help people discover restaurants–but to do that well, you have to understand how a city functions. How people live in these cities. How that changes. What new neighborhoods people are moving to. All of that kind of stuff.

I was an urban studies major, and I love figuring out what makes each city tick. What’s different about each city, and the different things that people are looking for in each place.

I was an urban studies major, and I love figuring out what makes each city tick. What’s different about each city, and the different things that people are looking for in each place. You really have to study the cities and talk to people.

From London to LA to New York to Chicago, people live their lives differently in ways that you wouldn’t expect. In terms of standard work hours, they’re early in some cities. We’ve gone to certain cities where we threw a happy hour event, a community outreach thing at like 6:00 p.m. Everyone’s like “Why is this so late?” But if we throw a happy hour at 6:00 in New York, everyone’s like, “How am I going to get to something at 6:00?” You learn those things: the way that people transport themselves and get around. In LA, there are maybe not as many people that work 9:00 to 5:00 desk jobs. Those things all come into play when we think about creating content and connecting with local audiences.

One really exciting moment last year was when we acquired Zagat, which is this legendary restaurant guide that was known as the “burgundy bible.” Tons of people grew up with it in their house, these long thin books. It was really an iconic brand. The opportunity to acquire it from Google came about, which was really incredible. As we met the founders, a husband and wife who founded Zagat, the spirit of what they wanted to do was so similar. It was a great experience. — September 26, 2018 • Photo by Brooke Sietinsons