the rationale

It is said that Ithaca has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the United States.  In my four years here I have experienced the pleasure — as well as the pain — of having eaten at many of them.

Because the journalists of Ithaca tend to be, well, nice, and want to continue to get along with their neighbors, every new restaurant (like every new theater production) opens to rave reviews.  While my adventuresome spirit welcomes a new place to eat as much as the next big city transplant, I realize, as my days here become numbered, that I and my wallet could have benefited from the wisdom of a local restaurant reviewer so daring as to be, if not honest, at least opinionated.

In this spirit — and in the spirit of trying to figure out what all to do with my dwindling time in the often delicious place I’ve come to call home — I belatedly begin this blog.  For the next 90 days, I will write an Ithaca (or Ithaca-area) restaurant review each day, covering the good, the bad, and the overpriced.