Eatin' Out

Over the past 24 months, I and a guest have compiled a list on this blog of local, non-chain restaurants where we’ve eaten, without regard to likes/dislikes, stars, or a recommendations algorithm or any of those Internet habits. The idea was to discover the one-offs, avoiding the chains and the fast foods.

This list is 60-places long and does not represent anything more than just what has been tried and liked and is listed as Diners and Dives below (in June 2018).

I’m told there is something on the order of 200 places to eat in or around Johnson City. No wonder the region gets tagged for obesity.

When I signed on at ETSU in the mid-1980s, my co-workers celebrated by eating out once a week. This venture was titled “The Greasy Spoon Tour.” We weren’t about to broadcast where we went simply because the places were not greasy spoons in the traditional sense but non-chain local restaurants.

Here in Johnson City it seems we have an explosion of fast/casual eating and a subsequent expansion of our belt lines. I am generally uneasy of what limits the state legislature will allow us to control our own healthy eating. Eating more mountainous food is not what my cardiologist expects from me.

I sense that we don’t enjoy what we eat as much as we answer the basic nature call for ever-more cheap-food consumption even when we know better. We eat at fixed times, fixed places, quickly, with more concern for filling our gut than for satisfying our tongue. Oral fixation trumps pants sizes? Various attempts around the country to confront this belt-busting spiral by state, communities, and civic groups get beaten back by powerful lobbies. And then, of all things, it seems like the concerned citizen/chow-hound gets blamed for trying to be healthy, for adjusting their eating and their exercise because such behavior on their part is detrimental to the interests of the chain-restaurant-mass-food-supply scheme.

I do not eat high on the hog. Nor am I strictly a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. When I can, I avoid white bread (but accept white-bread buns) and usually walk past prepackaged sandwich meats and try to skip the candy aisle, skip the soda aisle, and can’t stand sweetened tea. Simple and good seem to be the best description of this tummy’s preferred menu.

One thing we wanted to do with this list was have a hot-dog comparison between the five local Appalachian League concessions. We only got to three: Cardinals, Twins, Pirates. Elizabethton had better dogs than Johnson City. Scarfing down a hot dog, plus a soda, for most people, something I avoid doing, and then sitting rather quietly at the game is a recipe for additional tubbiness. Getting angry at the umpire does not promote positive food digestion.

The list has some gaps, for sure. And some restaurants have closed or changed hands. The best thing to do is make your own list, define your own rules, and draw your own boundaries. Not being on our list does not mean anything.

There are plenty of interesting places to eat and eat well: Boonie’s at Davis Dock or Burger Bar tor Burger Hut or Pilot Hill General Store or Eatz on Moore Street or the Mid-City Grill. Take your pick and happy hunting.
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