After moving to Tampa I realized my conversations with my new-found friends always turned to recent dining experiences. We were hungry (ha!) for new places to eat.
After this went on for a few months I suggested we all sign up to do a shared blog. That way we wouldn’t have to wait until we saw each other to talk about what was good and bad in regional restaurants. Everyone agreed this was a good idea. I set up the blog and people signed up, but the reality was there were few posts from anyone but me. Blogging wasn’t part of their recreational flow like it was mine.
And so, Eating Tampa was launched. Eventually I expanded the co-blogger list, and maybe a dozen people ended up contributing, but over its run I wrote 90+ percent of the posts. I’m going to resist the urge to name-drop and just say it was a most gratifying experience. I met local food writers, local restaurateurs, and local food bloggers. I was invited out to participate in various events which I then covered on the blog. Most of my growing social circle read it and commented on restaurants I’d visited. Despite being shuttered for nearly a decade and only having a relatively short life-span, I’m occasionally asked about it even today.
Ultimately, the burden of constantly finding new places to eat caught up with me. Not only was it expensive, but there were times when I wanted to eat at familiar places already covered in the blog. How many times could I reasonably review the Taco Bus? I was also eager to expand the scope of my writing. I decided to morph Eating Tampa to reflect my broader interests.
NEXT: Re/Creating Tampa