| 1. BON APPÉTIT CRITICIZED FOR ‘50 BEST’ LIST THAT INCLUDES EDITOR’S RESTAURANT: Bon Appétit magazine on Tuesday released its list of 50 restaurants vying to be named the nation’s top new restaurant of the year. One of the restaurants, Carpenter Hall in Austin, is associated with former deputy editor and current editor-at-large Andrew Knowlton. The decision to include his restaurant has raised ethics concerns from food media pros including Hanna Raskin, president of the Association of Food Journalists, who said including a restaurant the magazine has a close relationship is an ethics breach, even with a disclosure. Washington Post: “A Bon Appétit spokeswoman offered a fuller explanation of what she characterized as an arm’s-length process by which Carpenters Hall made the list. Knowlton ‘was not involved’ in the creation of the list, she said in an interview with the Post. The decision to include his restaurant was made after Bon Appétit deputy editor Julia Kramer, who took over from Knowlton in spearheading the project, and other Bon Appétit editors dined there and determined it 'met the criteria,' she added. The magazine’s editors evaluate restaurants around the country that have opened since May 2018 to find their top 10 favorites, a whittled-down list that will be announced next week.” 2. AREA 51 FEST CANCELED OVER FEAR OF ‘HUMANITARIAN DISASTER’: Organizers have pulled out of the planned AlienStock music festival in Rachel, Nevada, which spawned from a mock Facebook event encouraging people to storm Area 51. In a statement on the event website, creator Matty Roberts and his team cited concerns over “lack of infrastructure, poor planning, risk management, and blatant disregard for the safety of the expected 10,000-plus AlienStock attendees.” Roberts is now promoting a free Area 51 celebration at the Downtown Las Vegas Event Center on September 19, which will feature E.D.M. artists initially slated to play the AlienStock festival. CNN: “It seems an event of sorts may still go ahead, though it's unclear how many people will still turn up in Rachel the weekend of September 20. … The Rachel, Nevada website has been updated with the announcement that Roberts has pulled out, stating, ‘If any event still happens it is going to be a pretty sad affair with no bands, very little infrastructure, and a lot of unhappy campers.’" 3. TOKYO SEES LUXE HOTEL BOOM BEFORE 2020 OLYMPICS: Tokyo is experiencing a luxury hotel boom as developers want to feature their new and renovated properties ahead of the 2020 Olympics. A Four Seasons and Marriott International’s Edition are both opening in Japan’s capital city by next summer, and the historic Oksana hotel is slated to reopen Thursday after a $1 billion renovation. The Wall Street Journal: “The country is expecting to set a record of 40 million visitors next year when the Summer Games come to Tokyo, up from 31 million in 2018. Tourists spent more than $12 billion on lodging last year, according to government figures. A common practice in the more recent luxury hotels in Tokyo is to occupy the top few floors of office towers. What is being called the Tokyo Edition Toranomon sits atop a 38-story tower in the Toranomon business district and is a collaboration with American hotelier Ian Schrager, best known for pioneering the boutique hotel concept.” 4. TIFF VENUE REFUSES TO SCREEN FILMS FROM STREAMING PLATFORMS: Films slated for release on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime won’t be screening for industry executives and press at one downtown Toronto venue during the Toronto International Film Festival. Cineplex, a Canadian exhibition company that owns Scotiabank, told the festival this year that it banned all streaming platform titles from its venue on Richmond Street. The Hollywood Reporter: “There are hundreds of fantastic films screening as part of this year’s festival, and with all those options we asked that our screens feature titles from studios who understand and appreciate the importance of the theatrical release model," Cineplex spokesperson Sarah Van Lange told The Hollywood Reporter. … The new P&I policy has forced the Toronto fest to shift industry and press-only screenings for Amazon and Netflix titles two blocks over to Bell Lightbox on King Street. Cineplex C.E.O. Ellis Jacob, besides being a key sponsor of TIFF with a seat on its board, is also chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners, the trade organization that represents movie theater operators, who are facing a competitive threat from streaming giants and their movie home-viewing options.” 5. HOTEL INDUSTRY STRUGGLES TO FIND STAFF: The hotel industry is thriving in the United States, except when it comes to finding workers. Chip Rogers, president and chief executive of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, told the New York Times that the labor market is the smallest its been in a generation, while the demand for hotels is the highest. According to the association’s new report, more than 2,270 hotels were opened in the U.S. the past three years, bringing the total number of properties in the country to 55,900. The New York Times: “While the study did not examine how many job openings exist in the lodging industry, the overall hospitality field has more than one million unfilled jobs, said Rosanna Maietta, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Foundation, the trade association’s nonprofit branch that focuses on work force development and research. For travelers, the labor shortage might mean lines at the front desk, rooms that aren’t ready at check in, hotel pools without lifeguards, delayed maintenance, and fewer on-site dining options. In Maine, it forced a nonprofit to close two of its four backcountry lodges.” | 