We're moving to a new model that's going to give more back to you...
All The Food launched in 2018 as a way to deliver honest, uncompromised content to those in Dublin who love eating out. We were tired of the hyperbole, untrustworthiness, and advertorial disguised as editorial on other websites, and it was built to fill a gap that we wanted filled ourselves. Where were people getting restaurant information and recommendations outside of weekly newspaper columns? Why wasn't there a central site with content that could be trusted, and no ulterior motives lurking beneath it all?
For the past three and a half years it's been self-funded, with the bare minimum of advertising that we can stomach showing to you, but we don't want to do it anymore, and attempts by advertisers and agencies in the past year to manipulate our editorial content by dangling future ad spend sealed the deal. What's the point? You don't want to see ads or sponcon interrupting our feeds and articles (or be inadvertently reading dishonest editorial), and we don't want our writers to be salespeople. We want them doing what they do best - eating all over Dublin and giving you honest and transparent reviews and information about where's worth your time and money.
We've also never wanted to fill our feeds with #gifted #pressdrop #invite tagged images of food or stays, and we know you don't want that either because you've told us. How can you trust our recommendations in the same way if we haven't had the potential sting of handing over our own cash or card?
So today we're launching ATF Insiders. Readers who subscribe for €4 a month will be entered into monthly giveaways; have access to our writers' bank of knowledge via an ATF answers email address; be added to our close friends list on Instagram and an exclusive mailing list for the first look at new content and tip offs about the most sought after tables and events in town; and be invited to ATF events once things get back to semi-normal.
We have new writers waiting in the wings raring to get eating and writing (and we're always interested to hear from more), but we want a practical way to pay them for their time and efforts (and food), that doesn't involve spending time chasing or creating ad content, or allowing brands to pay enough money to infiltrate our feeds.
ATF Insiders is our guarantee to you. No ads, anywhere. No sponcon. No gifted. No invite. No bots paid to like and engage with our content. No bought followers. No clickbait, time-wasting articles based on a single Instagram post with no additional information, because the more clicks, the more we can charge advertisers. Just the content we believe is most useful to you when navigating your way around the city's (and more of the country's) food scene.
We don't want to block content from anyone. It's been a rough year for a lot of us and funds might be tight, but we're offering added benefits to encourage you to support our platform. Here's what's on offer for ATF insiders:
Monthly Giveaways
You guys definitely enjoyed our 10 days of giveaways to mark hitting 30k Instagram followers. Each month we're contacted by food, drink and hospitality companies trying to reach you through our platform by sending us stuff in the hope that we'll post about it. From now on we'll be offering the ones we rate the opportunity to be part of our "monthly 9 giveaways" for our subscribers, as well as vouchers and experiences from places featured on our feeds. The first month's line up includes a table to the opening night of Gráinne O'Keeffe's new restaurant 'Mae', a €200 tab for Hawker, dinnerwith wine pairings at The Winding Stair/Legal Eagle pop up and loads more - see July's line up here. You won't have to do anything to enter. Everyone on the insiders' list goes in the hat and winners will be selected at random.
ATF Answers
Each month we spend a considerable amount of time answering your emails, Instagram DMs and Twitter messages asking for recommendations for your Dad's birthday, your anniversary meal, the family occasion with one vegan, one gluten free and one fussy eater. We love talking to you guys and sharing what we know, but as the site grows bigger it's taking up an unsustainable amount of time. Going forward ATF Insiders will have access to an ATF answers email where you can throw your questions at us and we'll get back to you within the day (unless someone's in hospital or has no phone reception).
ATF'S Close Friends
ATF Insiders will be added to our close friends list on Instagram for previews of new content, the first chance to sign up for experiences like Sprezzatura's pasta club or new restaurant openings, and tip offs about the most coveted tables and events in the city going live. We'll also send mail shots for anything unmissable to an exclusive ATF Insiders mailing list.
ATF Events
Once covid-related drama dies down we're planning events. Need more foodie friends? Want to go out to eat with more people like you? Just want to meet new people? We plan on taking over private rooms and spaces in some of the city's best restaurants to give you a taste of what they do. ATF will not be trying to make money off these events, but aiming to deliver you brilliant value menus in the city's best places to eat.
Still Not Convinced?
You've heard all of the comparisons about monthly content subscriptions being the price of a coffee or a newspaper. It feels like we're all starting to realise that nothing comes for free, we all pay for our content in some way, whether that's through targeted ads, the cookies that haunt you for weeks afterwards, the interruptions to what you're reading, the information they're collecting about you, or just having to watch boring content you're not interested in to get to the good stuff. We want to make it more straightforward, more believable, less manipulated, and life's too short to eat shit food.
Join ATF Insiders here (you will need to create an account and be logged into the website first). Everyone who subscribes by midnight this Saturday 17th will be entered into July's monthly 9 giveaway. Winners will be picked on Sunday 18th July 2021.
