not to get all gushy, but here at the eat.shop guides, we have loving feelings for one-of-a-kind, worth going out of the way to visit, independently owned local businesses. though it’s a uniquely american sentiment to think bigger is better, we believe smaller is special—and we’ve dedicated an entire series of city guides to this premise.
the eat.shop guides focus on cities both big and obvious (nyc and paris) and small and not-so-obvious (kansas city and portland). you could say we’re an equal opportunity publisher with 24 cities in our back pocket and counting.
because we believe that a guide needs to come along with you–and not languish on your coffee table looking all pretty and pristine–an eat.shop guide fits perfectly into a handbag, a glove compartment box or your empty hand. and instead of having it indiscriminently feature everything but your kitchen sink, we put our eat.shop colored glasses on and carefully choose 85 or so unique, authentic, scrumdilicious local businesses that range from eye popping and brand spankin’ new to deeply patinaed and way off the beaten path, funky and unexpected to chic and shiny.
the first eat.shop guide was published in portland, oregon in late 2003. kaie wellman, the creator of the series, was at the time an art director / graphic designer with a bad attitude. to abolish the attitude, she thought about what career change might make her happy, so she took a solo road trip to san francisco to visit the gift fair for inspiration. after spending 30 minutes at the fair, she was not inspired. so with two days left in town, and looking for a new career path, she hit the streets—not to take up the oldest profession, but to explore the city neighborhood by neighborhood.
while peering in, poking around, sniffing the air and devouring the delicious—it occurred to her that the bad attitude and the mantle of grumpiness had disappeared and in its place was some serious happiness, all because of a little local eating and shopping therapy. a series was born.
by late 2004 there were guides for three cities: portland, seattle and los angeles all researched, written and photographed by delusional multi-tasker kaie. by 2005 reality set in and kaie realized that helping hands were needed, and the eat.shop gang was born. anna h. blessing fresh out of medill school of journalism with a “can do” attitude that is quite often found in the under 30 sect, signed on to author the chicago book. jon hart, a closet cello player and owner of the world famous, jon’s awesome business (nobody knows what he does really), insisted that he author the paris book and jan faust dane, wordsmith and unknown to her before she began authoring these guides, spectacular photographer of food, authored the first state guide: rhode island because it really is the size of a large city.
these authors, along with kaie, form the nucleus of the eat.shop creative team. each have authored multiple cities meaning they research, write and photograph the book (on the city pages within this site you can see in the left hand column who authored the book). we’ve also had other talented folk who have authored. agnes baddoo who has been around the best blocks in the world and knows everybody of note around those blocks has authored numerous titles. bonnie markel and dave mead, a husband and wife stylist / photographer team took on the legendary city of new orleans of which bonnie is a fifth generation native. caroline loncq, actress by trade, came on board to author the london book where she lives and explores daily on bike with long tresses flying.
often asked questions about eat.shop
how do you choose the businesses that are featured?
first and foremost, the business must be locally owned and not part of a chain. then we look for places that really stand out. instead of the “everything and the kitchen sink” approach, we edit down to the gems that you would happily drive across town in rush hour traffic to get to, whether they be new and swanky or funky and well worn. places that we look for are beautifully and / or uniquely presented with food and/or merchandise that won’t be found on every street corner. we look for places where we can feel the owners passionate committment to what they do, as opposed to a place that was opened because of a half-baked business plan.
do you guys do reviews?
if we feature a business in the book, it means we love it. so our blurbs tend to be more experiential travelogues, instead of reviews or criticisms.
can i pay you to be in the book?
even though we’re really fond of money, we won’t be accepting the dosh. the moment that money gets exchanged for the written word, baddddd things happen.
how often do you publish new editions and should i chuck my old edition? and if a business doesn’t make it into all the editions does it mean you don’t like it anymore?
new editions come out every two years. because we only feature 85 or so businesses in a book (130 in sf bay area and nyc), and each new edition features over 80% businesses new to the book—you’ll absolutely want to hang on to previous editions so you’ll have the entire volume for that city. though some businesses are repeated because they are just too imperative to leave out, the businesses that aren’t featured for a second go round are all still fantastic.
how can i find the older editions?
though the older editions don’t appear in our shopping cart, if you would like to purchase previous editions, you can for $5 a book. email megan@eatshopguides.com to order. also, we will soon offer all of the previous editions in online e-book form via this website. stay tuned.
i would love to be an author, are you accepting resumes?
though right now the eat.shop gang is fully staffed, who knows what the future holds. eat.shop authors are well-traveled folk who not only write with their own distinctive and witty voice, but also know their way around a digital slr camera. and most importantly they must subscribe to the eat.shop aesthetic.
what happens when a business in the book closes, do you reprint immediately?
when one of the businesses featured in a book closes, it—in the most eloquent way it can be stated–sucks. and with the cruddy recession we find ourselves in, there’s no doubt more will follow. do we pull all of the books off the bookshelf when this happens? nope, because there’s dozens more businesses in that book that are open and ready for you to visit. so how do we let you know a place is closed? we will note it here on the website on the city page. also if a business moves, we will note here the new address.
how do you choose the covet / imbibe / devours and what happens if they are no longer stocked?
here’s the skinny: these items were picked because they are things we desired and/or really stood out as something that define the style of the business. because we are in production on the books six months before they are released, sometimes these items are no longer available because of seasonality or any number of different reasons. we apologize for any heartbreak caused by this!
if you have any questions or inquiries about this long diatribe of blah blah, go to the contacts page. all worthwhile names, emails, phone numbers, social security numbers and blood types are listed.