Smashed: I'm on holiday but I have some exciting news about a Substack live event

The UK's restaurant scene digested

Hello Smashers (do you like being called a Smasher? I thought I’d try it out for size, see how it feels. I’m not sure about it. Let me know in the comments. There could be a range of merchandise in it). I’m taking a short break, so there’s no full newsletter this week, normal service will be resumed next week. I do, however, have a few things I wanted to bring to your attention.

I wrote a guest post for Test Taste Repeat, the Good Food Substack newsletter. You can read it here. It’s all about what makes a great restaurant salad. I also wrote a recipe especially for the newsletter, ‘Warm Salad of Courgette, Spring Onion and Chorizo with Oregano, Lemon and Calabrian Chilli dressing’. I can confirm that it’s really delicious because I did actually make the thing. There will be an Instagram post of me testing the recipe posted on Good Food’s account tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 24 July) so please do check that out on @goodfoodeveryday.

Courgette salad with a stupidly long name that takes longer to say than it does to cook the bloody thing.

I contributed to the summer special cover story of the latest edition of The Observer Food Monthly. It’s called ‘It’s getting hot out here’ and is an ‘ultimate UK food tour’. I wrote about the best rooftop bars and restaurant terraces in Brighton, the emerging Worthing food and drink scene and some of the best food tours in the UK, including of course, Brighton Food Tours. You can read the feature here.

I have also contributed to the first edition of the new Observer Food Weekly newsletter, which will be published this Friday, 25 July. I interviewed chef and restaurateur David Carter of Oma, Agora, Manteca and Smokestak about his secret ingredient and wrote a short review of Caper and Cure in Bristol among other things. You can sign up for the newsletter here. I will be contributing to future editions, so please do sign up if you enjoy my writing.

Finally, I will be making my live Substack debut on Monday 4th August at 6pm when I will be talking to Bristol-based restaurateur Dan O’Regan who publishes the brilliant Notes on A Napkin newsletter. If you don’t know Dan, I’d highly recommend subscribing. There are more details about Dan and his newsletter below. The broadcast will last 45 minutes. To join, you’ll need to download the Substack iOS or Android app to your phone. If you make sure to enable notifications, the app will notify you when I’m live. Just tap the notification and you’re in. It’s that easy!

I’ll be chatting to Dan about how he got into the business and the highs and lows of running a restaurant for about the first 15 minutes, then there will be a Q&A session for the remainder of the running time. If things go well on the day and there are lots of questions, both Dan and I will be happy to carry on for the full hour. I’ll take questions on the day via Substack chat, but please send your questions for Dan in advance of the day either via the Substack chat by clicking here or by emailing me at andylynes@gmail.com. The chat thread will be open during the event too. Hope to see you on 4th August.

About Dan

Dan O'Regan is a restaurateur, writer, and recovering coffee obsessive based in Bath.

He started his hospitality journey behind espresso machines, competing in national coffee championships and immersing himself deeply in the speciality coffee world. After several years in coffee, he moved into restaurants, founding BANK, a neighbourhood spot built around cooking over fire, and more recently opening Lapin, a modern French restaurant at Bristol’s Wapping Wharf.

Dan writes candidly about hospitality on his Substack, Notes on a Napkin, sharing honest reflections on restaurant life, customer quirks, and celebrations of service. He’s happiest speaking plainly and sharing stories without fuss or pretension.

About Notes on a Napkin

If you're curious about what happens behind the scenes at a restaurant, you will love Notes on a Napkin. Bristol-based restaurateur Dan O’Regan describes his recently launched newsletter as ‘a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on — the myths, the madness, the moments that matter — written by a self-taught restaurateur still figuring it all out.’ O’Regan runs the critically acclaimed Bank and Lapin and is frank and funny about the hospitality industry.

So far, he’s covered subjects including ‘Where the Money Goes: Anatomy of a British Restaurant in 2025’ (‘Burrata costs more than beef. Storms wipe out seafood supplies or send prices soaring. Turbot is delicious, but not at £50 a portion’, why ‘Everyone Thinks They Can Run a Restaurant’ (‘100-hour weeks, ovens that catch fire mid-service, and answering 2am emails because someone insisted we sprint to Tesco, buy sausages, and cook it for their hungry dog’) and ‘What Makes a Bad Review Good’ (‘One snotty comment from a stranger and suddenly you're questioning your life choices, your kitchen setup, your music playlist, and whether your entire existence is a lie built on under-seasoned courgettes’). It’s very well written, thought-provoking stuff. You could think of it as a more well-mannered Substack equivalent of Gary Usher’s old Twitter feed. I can’t wait for the next edition. Make sure you don’t miss it by subscribing here.