If you have not heard our origin story, allow us to regale you. In August 2025, Ravenous’ five founder-owners (along with a bunch of other incredibly talented people) were laid off from, or had their roles eliminated by, Big Food Media. By that point, we had all become familiar with digital media layoffs that arrived every six months like clockwork, and had grown tired of the constraints and compromises required when media is beholden to shareholder profits and VC interests.
So we seized the means of production and launched Ravenous, the kind of food and culture publication we wanted to see in the world. Since May, we’ve published more than 75 stories. We’ve covered the rise of real estate agents doubling as food influencers, how TV juggernaut Taylor Sheridan is reshaping the restaurant scene in Fort Worth, why every chef is starting a Substack, looked at how lesbians and sports gambling are changing sports bars, and asked if your corner store’s AI slop signs are actually illegal. We are thrilled to be a part of a growing and thriving community of independent and worker-owned media. And we’re just getting started.
To bring in freelancers to expand our reporting and to pay ourselves a little extra so we can devote ourselves more to Ravenous (and less to bill-paying side work), we’re hoping to get 300 new paid subscribers in the next 30 days. To entice our free subscribers, we’re offering you a 25% discount on any subscription tier until September 19.
25% off the Diner level
-Access to all published content
-Ability to comment on stories
-Our undying love
25% off the Regular level
Everything in the Diner Level, PLUS
-Access to a quarterly salon discussing various food topics, from serious to insane — and sometimes with guest stars
-We’ll add you to our Instagram Close Friends list where we’ll take you behind-the-scenes to see how the sauce gets made
-Exclusive invites to future Ravenous events
-Discounts on merch and special free treats
-Nickname the Ravenous raven for a week! *Restrictions apply
25% off the Big Spender level
Everything in the Regular Level, PLUS
-Your name on the site as one of our BFFs
-Free, exclusively designed Ravenous merch that will never be available to the public
-Two-hour dinner playlist designed by whichever founder you want
-You get to know our secret name for the raven
What you’ll get with a paid Ravenous subscription:
A subscription at our Diner level gets you access to everything we publish, plus commenting privileges so you can argue about cheese enchiladas with your fellow readers. But at our Regular and Big Spender levels, you can unlock perks like quarterly virtual hangouts, being added to our Instagram close friends, invites to IRL events, and even knowing our super secret name for our raven.
If you’re already a free member, we are thrilled with your support, and we hope this might tempt you to see everything a paid membership has to offer. Ravenous doesn’t have any corporate backing or investors; We keep the lights on because of our readers. And we’ve calculated that if only one tenth of our free subscribers signed up for a paid subscription, we’d hit our goal handily.
Other ways you can support:
We understand a subscription may not be in the cards for everyone, in which case we’ll remind you our Tip Jar is always open for donations. Or, if you happen to have any rich friends (or if you are in fact a rich friend), we can accept larger, tax-deductible donations via our fiscal sponsorship with Tiny News Collective.
We are so excited for everything Ravenous has yet to do. We hope you’ll be a part of it.
Note: All discounted subscriptions will renew at standard rates.
