Culture Gabfest - Will Restaurants Survive?
Slate Culture Feed
Slate Podcasts
4.2 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2020
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on the Culture Gabfest, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner are joined by Jen Agg to talk about the fate of the restaurant industry. Next, they bring on New York Times Magazine contributing writer Jody Rosen to discuss the passing of Adam Schlesinger. Finally, the panel dives into Julia’s favorite movie and comfort watch—Sneakers.
Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Culture Gabfest each week, and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.
On the Slate Plus segment this week, the panel discusses their results to the Statistical "Which Character" Personality Quiz.
Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Production assistance by Rachael Allen.
Outro Music: “All Kinds of Time” by Fountains of Wayne
Endorsements
Jody: The singer Bill Withers, particularly his albums Naked & Warm and ’Justments.
Jonathan Cecil’s audiobook reading of P.G. Wodehouse’s Uncle Fred in the Springtime.
Dana: Interview with Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn on the Ringer podcast “The Watch.”
Julia: “Nutmeg” from A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!
Steve: The songwriter Marty Donald of The Lucksmiths found here in Steve’s Spotify playlist.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Stephen McHaff and this is the Slate Culture Gapfest. |
| 0:13.8 | Will Restaurants Survive Edition? |
| 0:15.8 | It's Wednesday, April 8th, 2020. |
| 0:18.5 | On today's show, we will be joined by Toronto restaurant owner, Jen Ag, to talk about the fate of the food service industry in a global pandemic. And then we will be joined by Jody Rosen to talk about the really horrible and premature loss of the great songwriter Adam Schlesinger, who died last week of complications from COVID-19. |
| 0:42.0 | And then finally, this week's comfort culture specimen comes to us by way of Julia. |
| 0:44.4 | It's the 1992 Capra Film Sneakers. |
| 0:46.8 | It starred Robert Redford and Sydney Poitier. |
| 0:52.8 | Joining me, of course, is Julia Turner, who is the deputy managing editor of the LA Times, joining me from L.A. |
| 0:53.5 | Hey, Julia. |
| 1:00.3 | Hello, hello. And of course, Dana Stevens, who's the film critic of Slate.com. Hey, Dana. Hey, Steve. |
| 1:11.4 | Jen Ag is the legendary Toronto restaurant and bar owner behind the dearly departed Blackhoof, Rum Corner, Gray Gardens, more recently Bar Vendetta, and Lesuan. She's also the author of the memoir. I hear she's a real bitch. I should say I met Jen. First met her when I was doing a |
| 1:16.0 | travel piece in Toronto. And before we sat down face to face, I knew right away that she makes |
| 1:21.9 | beautiful environments in which to dine, talk, hang, and be. They balance formality and informality really exquisitely. And she knows how to |
| 1:31.4 | build a restaurant either with money or without it, which lets you know that her design sense is |
| 1:36.0 | impeccable. I do love her restaurants. I also love her. Jen, it is great to have you back on our show. |
| 1:41.5 | That was so nice. What a bunch of nice things. I miss you so much. |
| 1:45.3 | Yeah, I miss you too. The occasion is a rough one, of course. There have been pretty dire |
| 1:51.0 | predictions about the fate of the restaurant business in the age of pandemic. I want to make |
| 1:56.0 | absolutely clear that we're not talking about the gravest human toll here. There's no way to minimize it. There's |
| 2:02.0 | going to be destroyed lives and careers by the millions, but the restaurant industry is suffering, |
| 2:06.2 | and we thought it was important to talk about it a little bit. So why don't you just discuss |
| 2:10.3 | what's going on with you and your establishments? Yeah, I don't even know where to start. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.