From the Editors
Posted by estiator at 18 January, at 06 : 08 AM Print
Happy New Year!
That phrase packs a great deal of nuance and meaning when you peel away the mundane use of the expression. It’s not hard to understand what is meant by “New Year,” of course. It’s simply about the next 12 months; the next 52 weeks; the next 365 days.
But the “happy” part, well, that’s a concept that deserves some scrutiny. And to start, we need to analyze what it is that makes us happy.
One person’s understanding of happiness could be very much the same as the next person’s or very different. Is it vast amounts of wealth that makes you happy? Is it good health, fitness, and a clear mind? Is it the love of a significant other, or perhaps as much love from as many insignificant others as possible? Is it a sense of accomplishment, or an ability to apply the minimum effort needed to get by? Is it social justice for all, or is it getting one over on the next guy? Is it spending time at home or getting away as much as possible? One person’s happy place is work, while another’s is home. Some are happiest behind the wheel on the road, and some sailing the high seas. Some need some social lubricant to get them in a state of happiness, while others can get that high by communing with nature, or meditating on God. And some people chase happiness and never find it, while others never go looking for it and yet are in a state of perpetual bliss.
The purpose of this introduction to our January issue is not to answer any of these questions, of course, but to put the coming year into perspective, in the hopes that each reader finds that which makes them happiest in 2024. For our part, we hope that this issue brings some happiness, with well wishes and greetings from fellow restaurateurs, and with content that is, if not smile-inducing, then hopefully informative and interesting.
Toward that end, Constantine Kolitsas met up with Peter Parthenis Jr. and Peter Parthenis Sr. to bring us the incredible story of Grecian Delight/Kronos in our cover story, “A Specialty Food Legend’s 50-YearOdyssey,” while in his monthly Managing for Success column, he preaches the need to break through brick walls.
Digging deeper, senior contributor Michael Kaminer looks at what’s ahead in the industry in the next 12months in “A Spicy, Plant-based, Fermented Future: Industry trend gurus offer food and drink predictions for 2024.” And in our Greek pages, Athens correspondent Gina Kallitsi drives south to introduce us to Estiatorio Anama in the Peloponnese.
And so, we all wish you a Happy New Year for 2024, by whatever definition of happiness suits you best.
Cheers!
