About Andrew Loves
In an era where "everything is amazing," the goal of Andrew Loves is simple—to help you find the places that are actually worth your time and money.
We’ve all seen the viral videos and trendy interiors only to show up and be met with mediocrity and a high bill; the bar for quality has dropped. But I believe in valuing substance over aesthetics and using honest, unfiltered feedback—the good, the bad, and the overhyped—to celebrate those doing something exceptional. Let’s cut through the noise so you can experience something truly transformative .
The Backstory
Growing up, I wanted to be a chef. Food is in my blood. My great-grandparents owned bakeries and my Nana passed the tradition down, teaching me how to bake. My grandfather was a butcher, and my mom taught me the basics of cooking.
It wasn’t a surprise when I said I wanted to go to culinary school—but my parents didn’t want that life for me. At 18 though, I had the opportunity to move to Paris for the summer and work in a bakery—so off I went.
The experience was incredible, but all good things end. I came back, went to college and got a business degree. I had objectively cool internships to figure out what I wanted to do with my life — from working at an embassy to a law firm that restored ownership of art plundered by Nazis — but food kept calling me back.
Eventually, I started working in marketing for a restaurant group. But since I loved to cook, as much as I may want to eat a full cake, I would instead bring the recipes I was testing to the office. After a few months of doing that, I moved over to their R&D team helping to develop new concepts, and refresh menus at their existing restaurants.
While there, I learned what I loved—and didn’t—about cooking. I wanted to make the best. I wanted to take people on a journey and see them enjoy my food. I didn’t want to be behind the scenes or be tied to the commercial realities of hitting a specific price point.
So I left the group. I started selling pastries and cooking for private dinners, as a side hustle, but I took a job in eCommerce, which had me traveling constantly—New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh, Jaipur, Jodhpur… you get the idea. Being a foodie though, I would do research before any trip, so I could try the best bites wherever I was. I tracked everything in a spreadsheet: restaurant name, price point, cuisine type, address, what to order, when to go - I even added my notes after visiting. Friends and family started asking for my list, and then their friends, and their friends’ friends —until one day I sent it out 60 times. It was too much.
That’s when I created Andrew Loves—a place where people could see where I was eating and, good or bad, what I honestly thought. Well that resonated with people, and soon I had 10K followers, then 25K, then 50K, and so on. It was never supposed to be anything more than a way to help people find good food - but it turned into something so much more.
