No. 946 – Generator

Performer: Foo Fighters

Songwriters: Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins

Original Release: There Is Nothing Left to Lose

Year: 1999

Definitive Version: None

My standard expiration date on just about anything is 5 years. After 5 years of doing anything, I’m ready to move on.

In 1999, after 5 years of running the BusinessToday Monday tab for the Dispatch, I was done. Fortunately, I got the word: The Grump was going to hang ‘em up as the Dispatch restaurant reviewer.

The Grump, short for the Grumpy Gourmet, was a Dispatch legend—the very definition of a raconteur. He had been doing it since I was a kid, and I got to know him real well after I began to work there, so when he told me he would retire as a reviewer in the next few months, I got busy preparing.

Every time Debbie and I would go out to dinner, which was once a week and sometimes twice, I’d take notes and then do a writeup as if I were reviewing the place. I made a template of the typical page that the Grump’s reviews were printed on, so I would write to the same length as he did. The style of my reviews was essentially like this blog: telling stories. I decided I would approach a restaurant from the experience of a regular joe and comment on the whole experience, including even the background music if it were appropriate—like Sinatra at an Italian joint—no artsy-fartsy foodie pretensiousness from this reviewer.

I generated (ahem) about a dozen and picked the best three to submit. Given that the Grump was in my corner, talking me up as his possible successor, I figured I couldn’t miss. I was so confident, I told Debbie: “They can hire the best person for the job, or they can hire someone besides me.”

Well, they hired someone besides me, but that’s a story for another time. The beautiful thing it is I’m not bitter about it, even 12 years later.