[stomachmonkey]

OK, so the focus is a food lovers centric site.

The most obvious and easiest things (stores) to get to don't exist yet.

The forum does exist but is buried 3 clicks deep and spawns a new window.

Back to the stores, when you do get them up they should be one click from the left side, not click on stores then click to select which one you want.

The less navigation the better.

The news widgets, I don't get it. IMHO they are unnecessary. People already have their favorite news aggregators. They are a distraction and will drive traffic away from your site.

Outbound links, leakage, is typically something you want to avoid.

I get the feeling you think there is not enough content yet so you are providing filler which is not what I would do.

Focus on what you do have, make it great and monitor what your visitors are doing.

Add new content when it is ready and keep what seems to hold peoples interest and discard fluff.