I’m back.
And I didn’t expect to be here. But sometimes, you have to leave to find your way home.
Late last December, I left my gig at a local media outlet writing about food and drink, a position I’d built (if I may be immodest) over 15-plus years into one of the leading voices on the subject in Northern Nevada. The pandemic brought unexpected changes.
I started freelancing. Friends and contacts sent me cool assignments: for a casino, a property developer, a law firm, a nonprofit. One of the most challenging jobs? Writing a spa brochure. (You try extolling beauty treatments without overusing “indulgent.”)
Bars and restaurants began to get busier. Folks would ask me (or ask me through friends) what I was doing. Why hadn’t there been much restaurant coverage in recent months in local media? Would I start writing about food and drink again?
Nope, I said. I was done with all that. I now deployed my words in the service of flogging luxury condos.
And then a few weeks ago, the folks from Reno News & Review contacted me out of nowhere. The longtime Reno alternative weekly had converted to a digital platform in the wake of the pandemic and was rebuilding as the city emerged from the crisis. Would I be interested in joining that effort as the food and drink writer?
I stalled for a bit, but in truth, the job offer brought an immediate epiphany. I had been lying to myself. I missed the folks in the local food and drink community, I missed telling their stories, I missed the relationships forged through successes and tough times — relationships no newcomer could match.
So I said: I’m in. And with that, you now can reach me with all your food and drink tidbits, news, happenings, openings, events and gossip (or just to say hi) at johnathanw@newsreview.com or (775) 848-0979.
It’s good to be back.
Johnathan L. Wright is the food and drink writer for Reno News & Review. Follow him on Twitter at @ItsJLW. Sign up here for the Reno News & Review free weekly newsletter.