Welcome to Ab Ovo, a newsletter unpacking the best of what's happening in wine, spirits, and food
On the who, what, and why of this newsletter
Welcome to Ab Ovo, a weekly newsletter by Clay Dillow and Tim McKirdy (and the occasional guest). We deliver news, short reviews, the occasional endorsement, and more than a few blisteringly hot takes directly to your inbox, focusing on the products, personalities, and places influencing what’s happening and what’s next in wine, spirits, and food.
Why would we bother? Both of us are professional beverage writers. Clay’s work typically ends up in Fortune magazine, Men’s Journal, CNBC, Cool Hunting, and the like. Tim is a staff writer at VinePair and a former professional chef who burnished his resumé in restaurant kitchens in London and Buenos Aires. We’re both fortunate to spend a lot of time sharing above-average food and drink with a lot of interesting people in the worlds of beverage alcohol and cuisine.
In our day jobs, however, a lot of the more insider-y things we encounter — be they trends, people, products, origin stories, or life-changing ingredients — end up on the cutting room floor. Such is the modern editorial process. We see this as an additional outlet in which to share those experiences, with Clay taking the reins on beverage coverage and Tim riding point on food to ensure those 15-hour days in the kitchen weren’t entirely misspent.
Some things you can expect here: Insightful examination of trends (past, present, and future) in food and drink; updates on interesting developments in the food/wine/spirits industries and product pipelines; short reviews of products we think you should know about; and quality storytelling around the people, cultures, and places that shape the things we eat and drink. We’ll ignore the fake and/or flimsy news pegs that drive a lot of food and drink coverage (“National Margarita Day” is not, and has never been, a real thing) and instead deliver whatever we feel is most interesting and relevant to you, the reader.
Some things we won’t do: Provide restaurant-specific ratings/reviews, regurgitate an endless stream of tired takes on the same three-ingredient cocktails, or assign undeserved importance to haute cuisine or premium products just because they’re expensive.
And we will NOT bombard your inbox. That’s a solemn vow. We’re leaving ourselves room to experiment and evolve as this thing finds its legs, but we’re committed to keeping these emails short, not-too-often, and free of charge.
Since you didn’t ask, a note on the name: “Ab Ovo" translates to “from the egg,” or more loosely to “from the beginning.” As for our co-opting the term for the title of this newsletter, Ab Ovo also tees up the larger Latin phrase “ab ovo usque ad mala,” which means “from the egg to the apples.” Back in the year whatever, Romans of a certain class often began meals with egg dishes and ended them with fruit, and the phrase is used to describe the entirety of something from beginning to end, similar to the English idiom “soup to nuts.”
We think the Latin version makes us sound a lot smarter though, and it nods to the kind of storytelling we endeavor to provide here. Where possible we want to surface the stories underneath the the things that most of us purchase and consume without a ton of thought or consideration. And we hope to provide a couple of worthwhile recommendations along the way.
That’s Ab Ovo. If you enjoy what we do, we’d appreciate you sharing this with others who might find it interesting as well. Cheers, and thanks for reading.