A vintage look at getting away from work (usually) to grab a bite.

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June 21, 2019

If lunch didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it. We know this because it didn’t, and we did.

Like many things in America, the midday meal has been epically commodified and fetishized. We’ve known for centuries that we are what we eat. Lunch (because it’s intertwined with our working lives and hence our finances and ambitions) has inspired some corollary notions: We are where we eat, who we eat with, who we avoid, how many martinis are involved, if any, and whether we’re the ones who lie on the expense report .