Howdy, folks!

Sure is crowded in here!

The Ithaca Digest (my sister gets credit for the wonderful name) is a project in which two friends will attempt to eat at 102 restaurants (give or take) around Ithaca, NY. It is not meant strictly as a food review column, but as a wacky adventure through the depths of Ithaca's restaurants where we learn about the food, the city, and our inner demons. Sam and I do not claim to be foodies, or to have any sort of authority or training regarding food.

The idea for this blog came out of the weekly struggle that Sam and I usually go through in deciding on a place to eat in Ithaca. This is not to say that there are no good places to eat in Ithaca. I've had the "Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than Manhattan!" sound byte thrown at me my whole life. But somehow, Sam and I fell into the rut where we ate only at what we call the Chili's-Wegmans-Mall Food Court triangle. I admit that this sounds depressing, but don't get the impression that we don't thoroughly enjoy ourselves eating at only these restaurants. It's just that spending one's time and money at a chain family restaurant, a grocery store, and an admittedly fading food court (we lost Wendy's!) with all of the possibilities out there doesn't seem right. This week, the "where should we eat?" conversation turned into an exercise in naming all of the restaurants in Ithaca that we could think of, which then turned into us talking about how great it would be to eat at all of them and have a blog about it. All it took was a few "that's actually a good idea, guys"es from those around us to get it kickstarted.

Since we are two college students with constrained time and budgets, we are taking on this endeavour in a practical way. We have no rigid timetables, and no deadline for completion of the project (especially since the brunt of it will have to be done in the summers). The order we eat at the restaurants in will be basically random, but subject to our whims. There are no strict rules about what we have to order at the restaurants, but we'll try our best to keep it interesting and fair. Guests of any sort are welcome to come, and we're not above having other people pay for our meals.

We plan to eat at restaurants that are Ithaca landmarks, restaurants that basically no one has heard of, and restaurants that we've eaten religiously at for many years. Chains are included, since they are a viable food option even though they exist elsewhere. We will restrict some restaurants based on not having a dining area or something like that. For example, we don't want to order pizza from every place in town. However, we'll probably end up at Louie's Lunch and/or the Hot Truck, so any restrictions can be relaxed.