“Eric eats a lot of tacos. I would trust his judgment.” -Ann Thuy Nguyen, endorsing my review of La Perlita’s barbacoa and al pastor tacos

I spent four years writing Triad City Beat‘s food column, and the better part of that time writing the Barstool booze column, too. These days, I’m freelance, writing for a wide range of local, regional, and national publications:

Bon Appétit: The Undocumented Chef Behind Kansas City’s Most Inclusive Restaurant and How I Got My Booth: The Tuesday Night Boys at Pietro’s  and Why Whole30 Founder Melissa Hartwig Loves Eating Crickets and A Restaurant Called JewFro: How a Virginia Pop-Up Turned Into a Black-Jewish Communion

Serious Eats: Let the Kids Make Dinner

Wine Enthusiast: Embrace Waste: Repurpose Food Scraps Into Excellent Cocktails and Grassroots Campaigns and Educational Partnerships: The Black Women Elevating Craft Beer

VICE: The Dark Side of Barbecue is Pig Shit and Inside the Restaurants That Fed the Civil Rights Movement and This Pupusa Truck Funds Scholarships for Undocumented Students and Supermarket Chains Ignored this Black Community, So Residents Opened a Co-op and A Love Letter to Cook Out, the Most Underrated Fast Food Chain and Stop Calling Food ‘Plantation’ and I Love Boston Market’s Mac & Cheese More Than I Hate Capitalism and All Hail the 6-Year-Old ‘Shirley Temple King’ and Workers at ‘America’s Most Influential Bakery’ Are Accusing Its Owners of Union-Busting

The Infatuation: Where to Eat & Stay in Raleigh and Where to Eat & Stay in Durham

Life & Thyme: Chef Jordan Rainbolt Is Uncovering the Native Root of Southern Food

Local Palate: The South’s Natural Cider Champion

Vegetarian Times: Restaurateur Brian Ricciardi Is Bringing Vegan Dining to Small-Town North Carolina and How Student Activists Got Alt-Meat on the Menu — and the Curriculum

Eater Carolinas: New Boundary-Pushing Restaurant at the Forefront of Greensboro Dining Reopens and With $25,000 Award, Durham’s Saltbox Seafood Owner Wants to Pay It Forward and Durham’s Zimbabwean Restaurant Zweli’s Finds Footing in Uncharted Territory and Find the Best Crunchwrap Copycat at Durham Restaurant Ex-Voto and Barbecue Legend Ed Mitchell Launches Smoked Meat Delivery Service in Raleigh and New Durham Restaurant to Offer Bookstore and Free Podcast Studio and Winston-Salem’s Mr. Barbecue Sticks With Tradition and Reopens Using Wood-Fired Pits and Greensboro Chef Bets That City Is Ready for an All-Vegan Restaurant and Goldsboro Ice Cream Shop the Ice Storm Wins $20,000 Grant from Blue Bunny and This North Carolina Brewery Now Sells Pre-Rolled Joints and Raleigh’s St. Roch Reopens with Alligator Bolognese and ‘Life-Changing’ Potato Salad and Latina-Owned Durham Coffee Roaster Wins International Award and Bathroom Battle Unfolds at Durham Dive Bar Accordion Club and Little Light Is Greensboro’s Most Overlooked Restaurants — Until Now? and Burnout Leads to New Ownership at Freeman’s Grub & Pub and Greensboro Chef Kris Fuller Opens Modern Soda Fountain and 18 Essential Restaurants in Greensboro, North Carolina and Charlotte Chef Lisa Brooks Honors Grandmother with Intimate Southern Dinner Series and This New Raleigh Project Wants to Help You Launch a Bakery and All-Day Cafe & Beer Bar Opening Soon in Downtown Durham and Durham’s New Distillery Will Make All The Spirits and NC Restaurant of the Year: Cheeni Indian Food Emporium and Raleigh’s New Tapas Spot Las Ramblas Brings Spain to the Triangle and Brunch Comes with a Side of Astrology at Greensboro’s ‘Cille & ‘Scoe

Teen Vogue: These HBCU Alums Are Tackling Hunger on College Campuses

Edible Brooklyn: Mexicocina Agaveria and These Afghan Dumplings Are Worth the Wait and Smorgasburg’s 5 Most Exciting New Ventures and A Modern Russian Hanukkah Dinner and This Passover, Make This Spicy North African Stew and Emma’s Torch and Lighthouse Restaurant and Naama Tamir and Hunky Dory Opens and Village Vines and Pilar Cuban Bakery and Shelsky’s Bagel Shop and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and Strong Rope Brewery and The Plant Factory and The Dynamite Shop

Newsday: Make a Barbecue Pilgrimage to North Carolina and Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina: What to Do, Where to Stay and Eat

Culture Cheese Magazine: Sweet Dreams Are Made of Cheese and Meat & Cheese: Sausage Stars and The Mexican Cheesemaker Putting His Stamp on Wisconsin’s Cheese Scene

Hop Culture: Native Land Beer Campaign

The Wine Zine: You’re Not Saving the World By Drinking Natural Wine (But You Could Be) and The Concept Behind ‘Borderless Wine’ 

Our State Magazine: Coney Island Hot Dogs in Raleigh and Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza in Holly Springs and The Butcher Knows Best and 4 North Carolina Charcuterie Creators and Barbecue, Born & Bred and Delicatessen Counter Culture and A Legendary Peanut Butter Pie in Rocky Mount

Jewish Food Society: These Fried Potato Snacks Uphold an Israeli Family’s Indian Roots and The Treasured Yemenite Recipes That Skipped a Generation

The Nosher: Seltzer is Having a Moment

Edible Manhattan: The Allure and Importance of a Syrian Refugee’s New Cookbook and Just North of the Border, a Delicious Québec Road Trip and 6 Ideas for a Perfectly New York Valentine’s Day and Dean & Deluca Has Opened a Fast Casual Restaurant in Meatpacking and Inside Former Breads Baker Adir Michaeli’s Lower East Side Bakery and At the Union Square Greenmarket, Even the Charcuterie is Seasonal

Creative Loafing Atlanta: Edible History (Paschal’s Restaurant and the Civil Rights Movement)

INDY Week: I’ve written about two dozen articles for INDY Week, including almost a dozen about food & drink (such as this cover story on Melanated Wine).

AAA Living: Calling All Taco Fans: Here’s a Road Trip for You

Compound Butter: The Magic of ‘Naughty Dinner’

Raleigh Magazine: This Overlooked Vineyard Offers the Perfect Weekend Adventure and Ashley Christensen is Plotting a Restaurant Empire and Fear Not the Freezer and Chef Katsuji Tanabe’s Thrilling Return with Flavorful Homegrown Dishes and Dual Concept Diners Soul Taco and JewFro to Open in Raleigh and Farmland to Food Lab and Black Sheep Bartender and An Insider’s Guide to North Carolina’s ABC Liquor System and Shaking Up the Creek and Exurbs, Not Exile and Preeti’s New Indian Emporium and Vidrio Visionary and Fenton’s Fab Five and East Bower Cider Co. Will Be Raleigh’s First Hard Cidery and Giorgios Bakatsias is Opening Three Restaurants in Raleigh This Year and Sober Curious and Social and Back to Benin

Meal Magazine: Responding to Coronavirus, New Project Bolsters North Carolina’s Black Farmers

AM New York: Kava bar workers find a new home after striking out at a Bushwick tea room

Southeastern Dispatch: Sweet Magic Lives at Wonderpuff and Ashley Christensen Restaurants Took a Break. But Would They Do It Again? and An Unconventional Food Truck and These Greensboro Coffee Roasters Want to Turn the Industry Upside Down

1808: The Perfect Neighborhood Restaurant

I also regularly covered food & drink for Winston-Salem Monthly magazine and turned Triad City Beat newspaper’s food coverage into one of the paper’s flagship components, the lone reason that countless people picked up a copy or clicked over to the website. Some weeks I reviewed new restaurants or interviewed sommeliers, but I also hung out in a bar affiliated with Hells Angels. (Someone called a threat into our office after that one!) Some pieces tackled serious issues like immigration or lunch on lockdown, while others were decidedly light-hearted (like our annual Beer Issue).