Quick version: I’m Randall Kane. A native New Yorker, I’ve been running and backing companies for 25 years, and I write about what I actually put my time and money into—restaurants, founders, gadgets, and getting my running legs back. Most of it is free. The map is paid.
That’s the pitch. Here’s the longer one…
What this is
Four beats, one guy.
The Long Table. Restaurants, scored 0 to 10. I score whatever I eat, including the first visit - I don’t get a do-over, and neither do you. Misses stay up. My taste, not a star rating.
Office Hours. Founders send me real questions (here and in class) - “how do I take a no?” and “do I actually need a co-founder?” - and I answer as I would across a table: from scar tissue, not a framework. I’ve taught this at Cornell Johnson, and the students keep me honest.
Tech. Skeptical teardowns of wearables, AI, and whatever’s trending this month, with a view toward the future. The recurring question: Worth It or Wellness Theater?
Running / Health. I partially tore my Achilles in 2025. I’m rebuilding toward my first NYC Marathon in 2027. The training log is honest, so some weeks are ugly. I’m also sharing my BPM-engineered playlists for you to download!
Start with these five
If you read nothing else, read these. All free!
1. Low and Slow: A Love Letter to American Barbecue — the Long Table at its most opinionated. If you want to know whether my taste and yours line up, this is the test.
2. You Never Needed the Sensor. You Needed the Staff — the wearables piece. Elite athletes have the same data you do; what they have that you don’t is a person who reads it. Everything I think about the wellness-gadget industry is in here.
3. When Did “Whoa” Get So Rare in NYC Restaurants? — four meals across forty years that stopped the table cold, and why that almost never happens anymore—although it did in September at a four-month-old restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side! The argument behind every score on the map.
4. Office Hours: “Do I actually need a co-founder?” — a student asked; here’s the honest answer, including what my co-founder at Acquis was like on the bad days. If you’re starting something, start here.
5. Go Run - No Shuffle: My First Playlist Is Yours, Free — 41 minutes of songs charted to the effort curve of a run, in the order that matters. Press play, don’t press shuffle.
And when you’re ready for the MAP, two more. How I Score is the rulebook - read it first or the numbers won’t make sense. The List Is Now a Map is how the list turned into the thing you’re paying for.
What’s free, what’s paid
Free: most of the essays. Every Long Table post carries the verdicts in prose — if I loved a place or it broke my heart, you’ll read why without paying a dime. Office Hours, the tech teardowns, and the running posts are free. So is the first playlist. Go Run - No Shuffle is 41 minutes of songs BPM-charted to the effort curve of a run, and it is, and stays, free.
Paid gets you two big things, besides any paid posts:
The MAP, at opentabs.readopentabs.com/TheMap. Right now that’s 293 pins, 199 scores, 41 Gone, and 33 on my to-try list. Gone means it closed; I keep those on the map because they’ll be missed. A “To-try” pin means “I’m thinking about this place,” nothing more. Filter by tier - Casual, Date Night, Iconic, Fancy, Pricey - by my Top 10, by what I haven’t tried yet, by the misses, by what’s gone. Or by craving: BBQ, drinks, dessert. Or by city — it’s New York first, and Beyond NYC is where the pins go when I leave town. The essays tell you the story; the map carries the numbers.
The MAP unlocks with an access word. It changes every month and appears in that month’s paid post, along with the changelog: what was added, what was rescored, and what closed. Whatever else I decide is worth charging for also appears there.
The Playlists. Go Run is the free one. Five more are paid, and they’re all live now: Long Run (87 minutes, for the day pacing is everything), Tempo (one gear, held honest), Easy Miles (the run that protects the other runs), Hills (intervals for people who hate counting), and Race Day. Each one is built the same way: songs mapped by BPM to the pace, ordered to the run’s effort curve, with a deliberate dip so you don’t redline in the middle and the highest gear saved for the stretch where your legs start negotiating. No shuffle. The library refreshes every season.
One more thing, because it matters: no ads, no sponsors, no press meals. Nobody pays for my opinion. You do. That’s the deal, and it’s the only reason the scores matter.
Referral & Housekeeping
Know someone who’d like this? Substack pays you in ‘map time’ — and map time is full paid access, with every post and every playlist included. 3 referrals get you a month, 7 get a season (three months), and 15 get six months plus your own Verdict Card.
That’s it. Go eat something good this week — and if it’s bad or incredible, tell me. I’ll go score it, and we can debate in the comments!
— Randy