Eating up... everywhere

The Eating up Telegraph project is what started it all.

Well, maybe that's not entirely the case. What probably started it all is Little Joe's, which my great-great grandfather started back in 1908.

The restaurant was an L.A. institution until my Dad (and Uncle Bob a'course) decided to shut down in the late 90's - as Uncle Bob put it, "We've had a good run - no need to ride it until the wheels fall off."

The downside of the restaurant shutting down: I was unable to become a twentysomething restaurateur, which had been the eventual plan. (Assuming they'd retire and leave it to me/my cousins to run - all those long hours of wearing a ridiculous VonTrapp Family Waitstaff uniform complete with nylons - eek! - had been due penance, after all.) The upside: I moved to Northern California and landed in the Internet industry. And that's been a fun ride. And I got a "Little Joe's" tattoo, so hey - there's always something there to remind me... (warning: earworm alert.)

And yes, the part about the tattoo is true. No, I won't show you a picture - I dropped my pants at a family reunion to prove that I had this tat enough that I started to feel like I was at a [insert state/region with vaguely believable incest claims here] wedding. But I digress...

Growing up in a restaurant family replete with noisy Italians meant an appreciation for food (and the lively conversation/celebration that surrounds it) from an early age. It also meant that I was able to be an adventurous diner from day 1 - which made one of us, since my sister ate spaghetti and steak and chicken and that was about it.

I was always willing to try new, unpronounceable things (saying "calamari" is hard when you're wee) - if just once. The glaring exception here is the Durian fruit, which once made its way home with me and had to be summarily tossed once we split it open and it smelled like a just-found mob hit after a week in sweltering summer sun.

Which is to say it stunk. But I digress. Again.

Anyway, I like to eat. And living in San Francisco and then Oakland have afforded me no lack of awesome restaurants. So one day, after realizing the tendency to hit the same establishments over and over again, an idea was born: eat from one end of Telegraph Avenue to the other in the spirit of discovering, through food, a reflection of the various neighborhoods that this Avenue bisects. Food doesn't have to be fancy to give you a great dining experience. It's all about what you're looking to experience. And eat.

And so I convinced my Partner-in-Chow to do that project with me. But in the meantime there's so many other restaurants and other food adventures that hit the radar, and it seemed silly to shelve writing about those just because these adventures weren't occurring on any of the many eating thoroughfares we'd decided to hit at some point.

So we figured we'd start a main foodie blog to talk about any food topic that doesn't fit within the "Eating Up [insert street here]" projects.

And that is this blog.

If I can ever figure out how to permanently put links to the other blogs in the right-hand nav, I will. Otherwise, the naming convention is: eatingup[street].blogspot.com

If you need to reach us, that's easy. Take the spaces out of eat up eat well at g mail dot com - we'll get back to you. Maybe. If you're not screeching at us for something.