Five Stars from the Four Ferri

A few weeks back I came across this article, highlighting Spoons University's "45 Places to Eat in College Station Before You Die". Tom and I have dined at about 15 of these restaurants already - some of our favorites include Grub Burger Bar, Mad Taco, Koppe Bridge, Cafe Eccell, Paolo's Italian Kitchen, and Dixie Chicken - but that leaves 30 for us to experience...and we've decided to make doing so a family affair.

I went through years of blog posts looking for a photo of the four of
us eating dinner together, but this picture - of Will and me chowing
down on ballpark food at Will's first Detroit Tigers baseball game,
before Hallie was even born - was best I could do. Sad...

Over the course of the next year, Tom, Will, Hallie, and I plan to eat a meal at all 45 of the restaurants on this list. Which meal we eat will depend on each restaurant's specialties, meaning we won't visit a steakhouse for breakfast or a donut shop for dinner. We (Tom, Will, and I) have committed to choosing menu items on which the restaurant earned its reputation, meaning we won't order a hamburger at a seafood restaurant or chicken fingers at an Italian restaurant. Hallie, on the other hand, will order a hotdog, chicken fingers, french fries, or chips and salsa at every single establishment, so her food category scores won't count for much.

Speaking of scores, we plan to individually rate each of the restaurants on food, service, and atmosphere. (Again, Hallie's food scores shouldn't and won't count for anything.) We have no experience as food or restaurant critics, but we'll do our best and hopefully give BCS readers a little insight into where they can get great food but also enjoy a meal with the family in tow.

I'll share regular updates - highlighting the restaurants recently visited - here on Chasing Roots, so come back next month to read about what we've been savoring! (And not savoring, for that matter - our first restaurant's food was, at least in my opinion, far from five stars...)

Don't forget to enter the Chasing Roots Father's Day "Daddy Do Giveaway" by taking a picture of daddy doing daughter's hair and emailing it to erin@chasingroots.com. Photos submitted by 1:00 p.m. CST on Sunday, June 19th will be entered to win one of 10 Pantene Daddy Do Kits!