The New Dinner: A Love Story, FAQs

Thank you to everyone who showed up on my new Substack platform! It has been a very exciting week over here in the DALS house and I feel as energized as I did when I launched this blog 10-plus years ago. For those of you who are still wondering what the heck is happening, I’ve compiled a list of FAQs:

What exactly do you mean when you say you’re now on Substack?
Substack lets you access my recipes and posts just like you always have with this site, but it also automatically emails those posts to your inbox and allows for different levels of membership so we can create a tighter community.

I get too many emails as it is. Do I have to sign up for the newsletter to access Dinner: A Love Story?
No. You will have to provide your email to join, but once you do, you can click on “My Account,” then under “Email notifications,” you will see an option to opt out of the newsletter posts.

Is it free?
Yes! You’ll get the same recipes and advice you’re used to getting here. But if you decide to become a paid subscriber, that means you’ll get content on top of that: additional recipes and subscriber-only access to live chats with me and other writers, about menu ideas, community comment threads, podcasts, personalized, insider book previews, detailed daily vacation itineraries, and a lot more I’m sure I’ll come up with as we go along.

How much does it cost to get all those things?
It costs $5 a month or $50 a year.

I’m so confused! Will this site, where we are right now, still exist?
Yes, always! I transferred my archives over to Substack, too, but I can’t imagine ever shutting down this branch of Dinner: A Love Story. You will always be able to access recipes for my pork ragu and salmon salad and the 1500 other posts I’ve written here over the years. HOWEVER: As of January 2021, all new content will live on my Substack website.

What about comments? How does that work with Substack?
Same way it does here. Think of Dinner: A Love Story now as a newsletter in addition to being a website. Obviously you can’t publicly comment on the newsletter delivered directly to your inbox (though you can and should reply to me directly!), but you can always comment on the website. Even though my substack website looks different from this one, it still has all the same features you’re used to.

I’m convinced! Where do I sign up???
Hooray! You can do that right here — it takes 2.5 seconds.

I think I’m already a subscriber to your newsletter? How do I find out?
If you can’t remember whether you’re a newsletter subscriber or not, this link will tell you.

I’m already a DALS newsletter subscriber, but I want to try out the upgrades. Where do I do that?
Again: You can do that right here — it takes 2.5 seconds.

Can you explain the difference between an annual membership and founding member?
As of right now, a founding member means everything listed above plus personal access, which will probably translate to video opportunities, free event invitations, and writing workshops. I’m sure I’ll come up with more things as we go along.

Will your RSS feed stay as is?
To continue follow me via RSS feed, you’ll need to add this URL to your RSS reader: https://dinneralovestory.substack.com/feed.

I subscribed, but your emails go to my “promotions” tab in gmail. How do I fix this?
Mark those emails as “not spam.” Also helpful: Dragging my emails to the inbox, and replying directly to the newsletter (to me!), which helps gmail recognize me as important.

I want the recipe for those Braised Beans with Burrata, where is it?
It went out in yesterday’s newsletter, but if you subscribe, you can access it at my Substack website where it will live forever. Oh my God they are so good!

This is amazing, I want to tell everybody about your newsletter!
Awww, thank you, pretend reader! There will be “Share This” or “Forward This” buttons on every post, and that will help tremendously.

Anything else? Ask away!