World Cup Tourists Love Ranch

Welcome to Open Tab, a weekly roundup of the news, gossip, and stories that have stayed open in my tabs all week. Last week we covered the bug that may be the cause of higher beef prices.

This week’s contenders for reader nicknames come from a lovely reader, Ken, who suggested Appeteers, and from me, who’s thinking, I don’t know, maybe Appetizers? As always, I’d love to hear from you all—and I want to thank everyone who’s written in already to share their, uh, unvarnished opinions.

This week I was in Chicago with some of the Bon Appétit crew to cover the James Beard Awards. It was my first time in Chicago, and I took the opportunity to eat as widely as possible. In no particular order, I’m still dreaming about: the housemade amaro and coke at Bar Tutto, the canelé-like emmie at Loba, and the brie-filled gougères at Creepies—served warm, lacquered with honey, and finished with flaky salt. Phew, I’m feeling hot and bothered just thinking of them.

It’s been an interesting few weeks for some of America’s most beloved chain restaurants. Earlier this week the beloved Times Square Red Lobster closed; this after the company’s bankruptcy, last minute sale, and naming its youngest-ever CEO. The sale of Pizza Hut for a whopping $2.7 billion was also announced this week. Its locations around the world, excluding mainland China, will be acquired by a private equity firm, which is not usually a good sign for the future of any business.

While traditional chains are struggling, Wonder CEO Marc Lore laid out an eerie pitch for AI-fueled restaurants at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference last month. The platform, Wonder Create, would allow anyone to build a restaurant in minutes using AI. “You type in what kind of restaurant you want to build. It builds the restaurant—AI does—in under a minute.” he said. “It does the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all the recipes for your restaurant.” Is this what we want from restaurants?

Also this week: Tourists in the US for World Cup games are discovering the joys of American cuisine, Scottish World Cup fans may have drunk Boston dry, Dua Lipa gave a very home-cook-coded gift to all her wedding guests, and we’ve covered the best moments from this year’s James Beard Awards.

World Cup tourists are trying American food for the first time

One of the few joys of social media is watching someone experience something that brings them pure joy for the first time. That’s what I’ve been seeing in videos of World Cup tourists trying American food. They’re freaking out about complimentary chips and salsa on the table. They’re approaching gas station snacks with childlike wonder. They’re falling in love with ranch—so much so that the TSA has had to issue warnings about packing bottles of ranch in luggage.

Scottish World Cup fans drank Boston dry

The Boston Globe reports that visiting Scottish fans completely wiped out the city’s liquor stores. On their way to Foxborough for an openi