Bill Addison

Coming Up

At Eater, Bill Addison spent 2015–2018 as National Critic, a role that depended on close reading rather than reach. The work sits in the details: the plate, the room, and the mechanics that make a restaurant feel held together or merely staged. Across that stretch, Addison’s writing earned its place through discipline, not theatrics. Criticism also carries a method of self-presentation, and Addison has been explicit about that tension. When he said, “Unveiling my face won’t change how I go about the business of reviewing,” he was naming a core principle of the trade: the standards do not shift because the critic becomes visible. His other line, “Anonymity was a kind of armor,” points to the protective distance that once supported the work.

Where They Are Now

Today, Bill Addison is Restaurant Editor of Eater and Restaurant Critic of Los Angeles Times. The combination keeps him inside the daily conversation about restaurants, taste, and public judgment, with the same emphasis on consistency that marked his earlier criticism.

In Their Words “Unveiling my face won’t change how I go about the business of reviewing.” “I'm Bill Addison, Restaurant Critic for the Los Angeles Times.”