The Infatuation’s Andrew Steinthal: The Man Making your Dining Out Choices Easier
New York never stands still. It’s always changing, moving, and reconfiguring itself. Its residents are the same, always adapting, innovating, and upgrading their lives to match the City’s dynamism. That’s why Andrew Steinthal transitioned from being a successful record executive to heading up The Infatuation, a restaurant guide and review site built for today’s consumers. We recently had a chance to sit down with Steinthal and discuss his career transition, the scrappy early days of The Infatuation and what it’s been like to make big moves, acquiring Zagat, taking the site global, and working together with big names like Nike and BMW to create successful activations. Along the way, we gained some insight into how he makes his busy life as easy as possible through maintaining a versatile wardrobe and always making room for running and fitness.
So you’re a former record label executive. Take us through the process of pivoting to food content, so to speak.
Honestly, one of the reasons why we’ve been so confident in the growth of The Infatuation is because of the parallels between Chris and my experience in the music business. Sure, The Infatuation is about restaurant discovery, but it’s been equally about community growth within our platform and we’ve done it in the same way that you conduct grassroots growth for a band in the music world. As we’ve grown and developed new offerings, such as events like EEEEEATSCON or our Friends of The Infatuation membership program, there are a ton of similarities for how artists grows a small community into a massive following. That, in addition to best-in-class technology and excellent brand partners has been a big part of our recipe for success.
Infatuation was originally established in 2009. What’s changed since then? And what’s stayed the same?
Timing was really important for our growth. So many key milestones in our company have timed out well with key trends happening outside of it. The company launch was around the time of the launch of the iPhone, which really revolutionized the way people communicated and shared information. When we went full-time in 2014, Instagram was becoming more and more popular and we used social in a way that really helped build awareness for what we were doing. Certainly the biggest change has been the size of our reach as we now have offerings in nearly 50 markets, and of course the growth of the company is astounding. This whole thing started with Chris and I hitting the streets together and writing reviews all night. Now we have an incredibly talented team of more than 80 people around the globe.
Something unique about Infatuation, especially in the age of #spon, is its editorial integrity and principles. How, if at all, has that been central, or a challenge, to Infatuation’s growth and development?
Trust and transparency are two things we’ve never been willing to sacrifice. We trade on trust. It’s how we’ve built our community and it’s how our brand partners know that we offer value to them. We’ve never been willing to sacrifice that integrity and it’s why people trust our content. We’ve always booked reservations under fake names, never accepted freebies, and payed for everything ourselves. In the end, it allows us to be honest in our editorial coverage and the community really appreciates that.
Infatuation acquired Zagat in 2018 and has announced plans to revive its print edition guide. How has this acquisition diversified Infatuation’s overall portfolio, and to what extent will it differentiate from, or dovetail with, Infatuation?
It’s funny because in the early days of The Infatuation, we would discuss how this was the Zagat for this generation. It was always the best-in-class offering in the space and really, Zagat was an app before it’s time. As we’ve grown we’ve realized the potential of pairing up a user-generated content platform like Zagat, with an editorially-driven platform like The Infatuation. We believe it will give us the ability to provide our growing community an option no matter where they are geographically and no matter what they’re looking for.
The Infatuation has a huge event and activation and partnership branch of the business. Can you please tell us more about this rapidly growing area of your company?
Events have long been an integral part of what we do. In addition to our semi-annual EEEEEATSCON events in New York and Los Angeles, we’ll produce more than 65 events this year on behalf of our brand partners. These have become increasingly important because it provides us a chance to directly connect with our community IRL, and provides a brand partners with an opportunity to authentically interact with them as well.
Echoing the spirit of our current Manual Issue, “Easy Living,” both Infatuation and Zagat are centered around helping consumers make informed decisions—in essence, making their lives simpler. How, if at all, does that framework transfer to your personal style?
I don’t know how to answer that exactly, but my style is pretty simple and I try to make informed decisions when it comes to my wardrobe as I very much do enjoy clothing. My style is very much built for “Easy Living,” even though we all know no one in NYC is successful living an easy life.
The nature of your business involves lots of travel. Do you have any tips for packing or how best to dress while traveling? Does your travel style derive inspiration from your intended destination, or is it more a one-wardrobe-fits-all situation which is just amended based on weather and such?
Indeed, I’m on the road a lot and like to make sure to pack plenty of flexible pieces that perfect for a myriad of different situations. I’m always looking to pack layers, button downs that don’t wrinkle, and running gear.
Lastly, can you please elaborate on EEEEEATS as a movement, as well as its recent collaborative Nike Running integration.
The Nike collaboration is a great example of why we started this company. We genuinely believed there was a huge opportunity in the marketplace to create the kind of community that has come together to support The Infatuation. People, just like us, that were looking for places to eat and drink that fit different situations in their life. Eating, Drinking, Fashion, Travel, and Fitness are all different elements that this community is interested in, and brand partners, whether it be Nike or American Express or BMW or Lyft or Stella Artois, have recognized as a common thread that pulls together our community. We’re proud of what we’re building but the work’s not done. Exciting times ahead for us.
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You can keep up with Andrew on IG here.
Photography by: Emanuel Hahn
