About The Hedonist

“I was born a poor black child…  “

- Navin R. Johnson, 1979

Why am I starting off my introduction with a quote from Steve Martin’s movie “The Jerk” – a movie that arguably set race relations back a good 25 years?  A movie that was completely devoid of political correctness and insulted blacks, Italians, Chinese, and working-class people???      Exactly… So take this as my warning that, if I’m fortunate to have you come back and read my musings on an ongoing basis, I will repay your graciousness by possibly offending you at some point.  Especially if you’re a hippie.

I currently live in Ann Arbor, Michigan – home of the University of Michigan, Zingerman’s, and Domino’s Pizza.  We moved here for work in November 2005 after living almost my entire life in the Chicago area and created a great life here.   It’s truly a wonderful town.  When people ask where I’m from, I proudly say I’m from Ann Arbor – although I’ll always still consider myself a Chicagoan.  (To be clear – I’ll never call myself a Michigander or Michiganian).  I’m happily married  (sorry Ms Lohan) to a wonderful, gorgeous, patient wife and am father to beautiful twin girls, and a devilishly-handsome boy (like his father).  Looking around at other blogs, I guess it’s the norm to keep them anonymous – so let’s call them Boom Boom and the Pieholes.

Am I a writer?  Hell no… If you couldn’t tell from my run-on sentences and wayward asides, I have no writing experience whatsoever.  But I’m not going to let a small detail like that stop me.  What I am is a lover of (in no particular order) cooking, wine, music, dining, beer, spirits, the Chicago Bears, and pop culture.  And I love talking about them just as much.   So this blog will be mostly about food and wine, but will have sprinklings of other things.  Think of it as a nice little virtual potpourri of useless crap.

What makes me qualified to talk definitively about food and wine?  Well, outside of a couple of drunken blackout moments in post-college Chicago, I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten a few times every single day of my life.  How does that make me more qualified than you?  It DOESN’T.   So if you think you know more, you probably do – write a blog and I’ll link to it.   Now, beverages….  I’d like to think that I know more than the average jerk.  I went through the first two stages of coursework with The International Sommelier Guild in 2004.  There was a third stage, but I couldn’t fit in the coursework with my 9-5 job.  Besides, it was really heavy on service – and I didn’t feel right taking away a job from an aspiring actor or English major.  I also worked in the wine department at Bello Vino Market here in A2.   It was there I met my buddy Botha – who got me into craft beer and, occasionally, trouble.  (Ever hear of Botha?)  So I think I’m more than qualified to talk about know all about viticulture, vinification, varietals, vagi- (oops, got carried away with the v’s) and pairings.

About the name… Why The Food and Wine Hedonist?  Why not something that uses the usual words – Gourmet, Epicurean, Gourmand, Enthusiast, blah blah blah?  Because those are WAY too uppity and really can’t be applied to everything I love.   I imagine in the future one of my three readers would say, “How can you call yourself an Epicurean and eat Taco Bell?”  Well, I love TBell.  And White Castle.  And I’m quite the aficionado of burritos, too.  Besides, I fucking hate the term “Gourmet”.  It is for those reasons that I can’t think of a better word than “Hedonist”… That, and I’m counting on some INTERESTING people stumbling upon this blog when Googling “Hedonism”.

I hope you enjoy my blog. Please, please, please, contribute to this by sending me your questions, comments, and pictures (especially those from your recent trip to Hedonism).