Who is Bob?

If you're at all curious about me, here's a little info.

As mentioned elsewhere, Bob isn't my real name.  I don't use my real name online for privacy reasons.  And if this blog is at all successful, then I'll be especially happy to remain anonymous to any restaurant owner that gets majorly pissed about something I write.  It's no-holds-barred when I'm playing critic, and I don't want to have to worry about my safety when I'm saying things that I think need saying.

"Bob" came about when I was trying to think up a screen name so I could register on a website.  I've had several screen names over the years, and I felt it was time for a new one.  This happened to be one of those websites that includes chat, so I wanted to have a persona, rather than something like GL22443 or xXx_rocko_xXx.  At that time in my life I enjoyed camping regularly, so "Bob the Camper" popped into my mind and I went with it.  It wasn't until a month or so later (when people started making Bob the Builder comments) that I made the connection.  Honestly, I had never heard of Bob the Builder, so the similarity was a total accident.  I still don't really know anything about Bob the Builder, but the kids seem to like him.  Anyway, over time a lot of people knew me as Bob, and so that's who I remain online.

I know a lot about restaurants, and I know a lot about food.  For many years in my past I worked in various foodservice jobs.  I've been a cook and a waiter and a bartender and a delivery person.  I've worked in family restaurants, fine dining "establishments", and fast food joints.  I've run the gamut from irritatingly quaint cuisine to steak and seafood to Italian and Mexican to pizza to hot dogs.  I've seen everything.  I've worked in places that had the highest cleanliness standards (believe it or not, Red Lobster has incredibly high kitchen standards, and I've worked in a couple of them at different times), and I've worked in places with rodent and roach problems.

I grew up in the Chicago area, but I've lived in many places and have eaten a lot of food in all of them.  So far, no place I've been has compared to Chicago for variety and quality, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of crap food there too.  Most of the worst food I've had was in Texas.  For a state with so much over-inflated pride, it's especially misplaced in their food.  Sure, there are some decent restaurants scattered about Texas, but apparently the mindset is that if you can call it barbecue and it's in Texas, then it must be the best in the world.  Far from it, trust me.  And there's the mexican food, which has mostly been bastardized into "Tex-Mex".  I think most people would be shocked at just how good Mexican food can be if you leave the "Tex" out of it.  And don't get me started on pizza.  Texans have no clue what pizza is.  In Texas, Pizza Hut is the best there is.  Anywhere else, Pizza Hut is the lowest of the low.

So yes, I know food, and I have a lot of opinions about it.  I like to eat, and I like to actually enjoy eating.  I expect the food I pay for to make me happy.  If it doesn't, I don't go back to that restaurant.  Well... not only do I not go back, but now I write about it too.  But critical and opinionated doesn't mean that all I do is complain.  I don't want a blog full of nothing but places to avoid.  There will be plenty of good stuff too, because I've found since moving to West Michigan that there's a lot of good food here too.  Some of the best food I've had since leaving Chicago in fact.  I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences, and I hope you get something out of reading.

One more thing...  I use the term West Michigan because that's what this area is usually called.  But West Michigan is a huge area.  This will be concentrated mostly on the areas around and between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, so it will include places like Grand Haven and Holland and other surrounding towns.  It also will only include places I want to try or know I already like, so I won't be reviewing places I wouldn't normally go to, unless it's to fill a request.  Ok?  Ok!

One more one more thing... I'm new to the blogging world, so hopefully my formatting and typos and stuff will get better as I go.  I've already learned that using * * around a word here doesn't make the word appear in bold, as it does just about everywhere else in the computer world.  Live and learn.  Enough about me and my shortcomings now.  On to the reviews...