After more than three years of dining out several times a week — and then sharing the experience with you — Cafe critic Gretchen Kurtz will soon take a break to spend more time with her family. We'll miss her reviews, but are pleased that she'll still be writing other stories for Westword. Right now, though, we're looking for a new critic.

Interested? Here are the details: 

Restaurant Critic

Westword has an immediate opening for a journalist who has a sophisticated understanding of food and the skill to write about it in an engaging way.

We publish food and restaurant news in multiple formats – criticism, daily stories and long-form features. Ideal candidates will have a solid culinary background, either self-taught or through professional kitchen experience or education, and clear opinions that they can back up. This is a contract/freelance opportunity that includes writing a weekly restaurant review (our reviewer works anonymously) as well as occasional food stories.

To apply, write a cover letter discussing the scope and sources of your culinary knowledge; your approach to restaurant criticism; and your thoughts on the current culture of food reporting. Include a résumé and three links to your best work (if none are published reviews, you should create a sample for this application) and send to:

cafereviewer@westword.com
(no phone calls, please)

We'll be closing off the first round of applications on Tuesday, December 22 — so if you're interested, let us know at cafereviewer@westword.com ASAP. And watch for Gretchen Kurtz's Year in Review piece on December 31...