Starting in 2006, the food world underwent a transformation as the established gatekeepers of American culinary creativity in New York City and the Bay Area were forced to contend with up and coming hot spots. Entire neighborhoods, like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and cities like Austin, were suddenly unrecognizable to long-term residents, their names becoming shorthand for the so-called hipster movement. It seemed, for a moment, like a glorious new epoch of eating and drinking in America—and then it was over. What happened? Traveling the country, James Beard Award-winning food journalist Kevin Alexander gets answers from the key chefs, bartenders, and activists who were there for the rise and the fall.