Our Biggest Stories After Ravenous’ First Month

Hello fellow ravens!

It’s about one month since we officially launched our website. When we first started this venture, the five of us were mostly heads down with paperwork on registering our entity, figuring out budget and finances, setting up a DMCA agent (this took an embarrassingly long time to register), and all the other boring stuff that we had to figure out very quickly. We’re thrilled to finally have made it to the fun part: reporting and writing and getting feedback from our subscribers of what they’ve been enjoying. 

We love hearing from you. Keep sending us your questions, love letters, story tips, and comments to info@weareravenous.com. Thank you so much for your patience as we grow! We're still in our early stages and truly appreciate your support along the way.

In today’s newsletter, we take a look back at some of the stories from the last month that have been getting a lot of buzz: lesbians are leading the race to save the American sports bar, a review of the surveillance footage surrounding the Attaboy management and union clash, people angry at private equity bagel spots, and of course, Malört shots.

What happened after some of our biggest stories went live

1.

Will Lesbians and Gambling Save the American Sports Bar?

It may seem as if these two distinct types of sports bars — the women’s sports bar and the gambling lounge — exist on totally different planets. But they’re products of the exact same social environment.

RavenousAmy McCarthy

• The Sports Bra, the Oregon-based women's sports bar featured in Amy's launch day story about the disparate forces conspiring to save the American sports bar, has raised over $600,000 in just two weeks via its community investment campaign. According to the Bra, the investments, which come from sports fans looking to own a piece of their favorite watering hole, will support the company's growth into a nationwide destination for women's sports. “Women’s sports fans have been proving this demand has existed for years,” founder Jenny Nguyen said. “They’ve shown up in the seats, in the ratings, in the merch lines, and in women’s sports bars. Now they’re showing up as investors. That tells me this is a community that is ready to help build what comes next.”
• On the other hand, DraftKings is closing its retail sportsbook at Wrigley Field after two years. You can still drink and eat there, but you’ll no longer be able to place in-person bets at the venue. So maybe it’ll just be the lesbians saving the sports bar.

2.

UPDATE: Attaboy Union Accuses Bar Management of Firing Worker in Retaliation For Organizing

Union reps from the New York cocktail bar allege management is union busting

RavenousJaya Saxena

• Over the Memorial Day weekend, we released our Sunday newsletter breaking the news that Chris Hughes, a bartender who’s worked at Attaboy for eight years, was fired, allegedly in retaliation for being an outspoken union member. After the story broke, the co-owner Sam Ross reached out to Jaya to comment on the circumstances behind the firing and surveillance video. Since then, the story has been updated to include additional quotes from him and union member Hannah Chouinard.
• In Flaming Hydra, Rax King wrote about the idea that restaurants are uniquely difficult to unionize, and cites our story. “Maybe the message should be, instead, that food service workers are facing the same challenges that workers have always faced,” she writes. “When they do win, their achievements will come to feel as inevitable as other workers’ achievements feel now.”

3.

Will Malört Return to the James Beard Awards Gala?

Do the owners of Jeppson’s Malört fear jumping the shark? Not really — but they would like to be invited back to the James Beard Awards Gala after fearing they burned a bridge eight years ago.

RavenousAshok Selvam

• A few days after publishing, Radicchio Salad shared their own piece about the history of the Chicago spirit and how corporate culture has made it kinda lame. The explainer video is cool too — his cat makes an appearance. 
• Appropriately, a commenter on our story enjoyed a shot of Malört in Ashok’s honor.

4.

The Enshittification of Bagels

Plus, a look at the way venture capital is getting into bagels and why it matters who makes yours.

RavenousCourtney E. Smith

• This story garnered the most Instagram comments so far. Clearly, private equity bagels are not welcome here. One of our favorite comments “Bagels that rise > Bagels that scale.”
• Recently, the Chicago Sun-Times shared a report about the outrage between independent bagel shops in the city and the newly opened PopUp Bagels, the private equity-backed spot known for “rip-and-dip” bagels that are dunked into into cream cheese.

New Stories This Week

Of Course Hooters Is Back

With Hooters Inc. re-acquiring most remaining locations, the “breastaurant” says it’s returning to its roots. Which have always been embedded in sexism.

RavenousJaya Saxena

I Found Out My “Family Recipes” Didn’t Actually Come From My Family

The recipes I thought were long-held family traditions are not even remotely that. They were written by a whole village of women.

RavenousCourtney E. Smith

🐦‍⬛ Bird Droppings

• Courtney wrote about the closing of Restaurant Beatrice, a beloved Cajun spot and the only Certified B Corp restaurant in Texas, in D Magazine. 
• Chef Eric Huang of Pecking House, a popular chicken joint in New York, blew up on the Michelin Guide in his latest Substack.
• Jaya edited The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2026 along with chef José Andrés. Add this to your reading list and pre-order now!

Raven Nickname Of The Week

Want to give our raven a silly little name? You have to become a Regular. Do you want to know the raven's real name? Only Big Spenders have access to that truth.

This week’s nickname was submitted by Gina, a Regular with a pun:

“Has to be his native pronunciation of croissant… Cawssoint. 🐦‍⬛🥐”

*chuckles*