The Everyday Joe

A bit of a lapse

We're working on some upgrades to the project, and various personal crises, which has kept things a bit quiet over here.

The changes will be in effect by the end of the year, and will continue as long as this site does.  In the meantime, please feel free to write in with any suggested destinations.

New finds coming tomorrow

I've had some good food the last couple of weeks, and spent this labor day in Southern VT, checking out the local trails and sampling what I could.  Have a few good finds out of the ordeal, and an ordeal it was.

One of the things I've alluded to in an earlier post are the bullets taken in pursuit of good local restaurants.  It's not easy to be a 'recommend only' site because there are some places out there that deserve to be roasted for bad service, bad hygiene, bad food, and any combination of all three. 

But that's not what we do here, because we understand that sometimes you catch a place on the wrong day, between cooks, or just before the health department is about to shut them down.  And we would rather not spend our time criticizing - we are evangelists for the great and wonderful local treasures the nation has to offer.

So be on the lookout for a great barbecue, kickin' brick-oven pizza, a great little lunch spot with fresh cut fries, some new deli action, and maybe hint of a warning about what to look out for when you dine among the hapless hippies of the Green Mountains.

Slow Month

This month has featured a broken down vehicle, a week in Dallas eating catered lunches and walking distance takeout (not a wide variety of walking distance anything in Dallas, typically), and a lot of local work on new accounts.

What does that mean to you?  Only that I've only had a few occasions to try new places, and the only one worth posting on I forgot to grab a card, so I don't have all the information I need to post the details.  Guess that means I have to go back again.

I do have a new deli I found yesterday, and a couple of places that were recommended to me recently, which will be tried soon.  But it may be another week before I have the time to sit down and post anything because life is just that kind of crazy right now.

No new posts this week, but we have a store!

That's right, there is nothing new to report this week, mainly because I didn't find anything really good to write about.  We take some serious bullets on occasion, resulting in everything from really bad taste to really bad stomach cramps (and worse), but it's all in pursuit of another great place to eat.

But we do have an update - a store on Zazzle.com, The Everyday Joe Dot Com Online Store!  

(As is becoming a tradition, that location may change if I can get CafePress to fix the button on their set up page, and I can set up a custom store over there.  We shall see.)

There are no products available yet - have to do some work on the logos and pick some products out, but it's yet another step in our evolution, working towards the moment when we start recruiting road tasters and expanding this into a real national (international, perhaps?) effort to direct professional travelers such as ourselves to the best and tastiest local food.

Updates and new posts coming soon

We've got some technical issues to work through, and a couple of restaurants to move over from our old blog location to this new (better) site. 

Once those changes are made and the other member of 'the Board' signs up, we should be off and running.

'the Board'

The Everyday Joe - starting something useful

There is nothing groundbreaking in what we want to do here.  But we are hoping to provide a service, a place you can count on to get quality advice on where to sit down for (or take out) your next meal.

The idea for this site came about because there isn't a place where the professional traveler can see where to get good food from fellow professional travelers - up to date, real information on the best hideaway restaurants in the thousands of small towns across this country.  And if there is, we haven't heard of it, and if we haven't heard about it, it must not be that good.

So we've decided to put together a resource where traveling salesman and women, territory managers, truckers, and anyone else who spends time in those little towns off the interstate can find a good place to eat without having to rely on the marketing budgets of the chain restaurants or the whims of network executives in L.A. and Manhattan.

Because the fact is, what most of us are looking for is a good meal at a fair price; and a lot of small, unknown diners, luncheonettes, and sandwich shops can't afford a billboard, or interstate friendly location - and they won't be featured on any of the myriad food programs on TV anytime soon since their focus is on serving meals and paying the bills, not making the biggest, baddest, most atmospherically stimulating burrito ever.

With that in mind, we're focusing on seeking out and suggesting the best hideaways, local gems, and take out joints - not the tourist attractions. 

We're also not in the business of slamming people either, so unless there is a real dive that must be avoided, we'll ignore the mediocre and stick with the places that are worth visiting, based on a simple scale:

1 fork: Stop in if you are nearby. 

2 forks: Find this place if you are in town.

3 forks:  Plan your trip around this meal.

We'll also separate places by cost, with the '$' system for one person's meal:

$ - under 10 bucks.

$$ - between 10 and 20 bucks.

$$$ - you should probably find a way to expense it.

Additionally, we'll make sure that the address and any important payment information is provided clearly, so you can plug the info into your GPS of choice and hit the ATM if necessary (because some places still don't take cards). 

Our reviews will be based on visits within a month of their posting, so that our information is timely, and not based on some nostalgic memory of meals long passed.

We've got plans for expansion, but for now feel free to comment, suggest places we should visit, and in a while, apply for a spot on our roster of trusted palettes.

Thanks,

'the Board'