Pittsburgh gets two finalists in the 2025 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards
The categories where Pittsburgh is represented are Best New Restaurant and the Humanitarian of the Year Awards.
Fet-Fisk Restaurant and Bar in Bloomfield is among the 10 finalists for Best New Restaurant. Fet-Fisk began in 2019, but not as a traditional restaurant. They hosted pop-up dinners across the city on Monday nights and would feature a brand-new menu each week.
Then, in 2024, they open a traditional brick-and-mortar location in Bloomfield.
According to their website, they feature regional produce in accordance with the season and sustainably sourced seafood and meats.
Meanwhile, the founder and CEO of Cafe Momentum, Chad Houser, was nominated for the Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Cafe Momentum, while being a Dallas-based nonprofit restaurant founded by Houser, chose Pittsburgh as one of its first expansion locations in March 2023.
The restaurant helps justice-involved teenagers by teaching them life skills and providing education and employment opportunities within the culinary industry.
You can check out the full list of nominees for the 2025 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards
on their website at this link
.
The 35th annual James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards will take place on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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Meet 16 VC firms investing in innovative creator economy startups like Substack, Whatnot, and Agentio
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AlleyCorp thinks influencers will be important in an AI-first consumer tech landscape Investors: Marshall Porter, general partner; Susannah Shipton, partner AlleyCorp is a New York-based VC firm focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups in various categories, including consumer tech, enterprise software, AI, and robotics. The company said it incubated MongoDB, Zola, and Business Insider when the companies were startups. Porter and Shipton both work on consumer tech investments, among other categories. Shipton, whose portfolio includes social-commerce app ShopMy and influencer-marketing platform Agentio, believes creators will continue to be influential in a world where AI agents drive consumer purchases. "Agents will learn how to parse influencer taste just like we do, and they will be swayed by influencer content in both obvious and subtle ways we can't predict yet," she wrote in a July blog post. Bain Capital Ventures has backed companies like Whop and ShopMy Investors: Scott Friend, partner; Aaref Hilaly, partner; Merritt Hummer, partner Bain Capital Ventures is the venture division of Bain Capital. The company has been funding startups at various stages of investment for over 20 years, ranging from seed rounds to growth-stage ones. BCV partner Hummer said she looks to invest in companies that are the "critical infrastructure for the creator economy," similar to how Shopify became the backbone of many e-commerce businesses. BCV partner Friend said he looks for creator startups that provide tools for both creators and their business partners, like brands, while partner Hilaly said he's drawn to creator companies that are using AI to help automate tasks and develop new business models for the industry. Fund size: BCV's latest funds total $1.9 billion, with more than $10 billion in assets under management, according to the firm. 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"Our two latest funds are our fourth venture fund, $712 million, and our second growth fund, $608 million." Creator Ventures is a consumer-focused fund that's 'mega bullish' on creative tools Investors: Sasha Kaletsky, managing partner; Caspar Lee, general partner Kaletsky cofounded Creator Ventures in 2022 with Lee, a longtime YouTuber and entrepreneur. The two have been investing in startups together since 2019, while Kaletsky worked in private equity. The firm announced its most recent fund, Fund II, in April. "We do consumer internet," Kaletsky said, listing apps, marketplaces, AI, and business-to-business (B2B) software that relates to the consumer. "When we think about the creator economy, usually that's in our consumer adjacent B2B, or you can call it prosumer, bucket," he said. Kaletsky said the firm is "mega bullish" on creative tools right now. 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30 minutes ago
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Orange Wheat Beer Brings Gold To Nashville, Tennessee Brewery
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