This website is celebrating a little Sweet 16 this week. (February 3rd is the actual date). As you might imagine, there have been many highs, many lows, and a whole lot of in-between moments since we launched youlleatitandlikeit.com on February 3, 2010.

I’ve had the good fortune of doing some amazing things in 16 years. I’ve enjoyed some incredible food, but as I say every time I get the opportunity, I’ve also enjoyed meeting some fantastic people. If you put all of that into a backgammon cup and shake it up, shake it up, shake it up, shake it…..you get something resembling a pretty good run doing something I love. The only thing bigger than my appetite these days is the ambition and plans for more. I’m a firm believer that if your dreams don’t scare you, then they aren’t big enough. Sign me up.

All of that as a background, I ran through a series of moments in my head yesterday at the gym. The trip down memory lane was bizarre. So much so, I thought I’d share some of those moments with you. In no particular order, of course.

*I do have to start at the very beginning however and the moment my friend Stacey suggested to me (at the Tybee Beach Bum Parade) that I start a cooking show. That was May 2009. Little did I know….

*The moment my first box of Eat It and Like It Business Cards arrived. It was Christmas Eve, 2009. I was over the moon as well as under the bus. My business partner at the time wanted something that would ‘stand out’. The box of 50 cards was $225. Yeah….

*The day in 2010 I met my friend Melody in Forsyth Park so she could show me an entire Powerpoint presentation that she had created with a vision of what this brand could become.It has ebbed and flowed a little, but at its core, we still stick to the same foundational principles that were created that year. What that is is a story for another time.

*The time during our first season of television when I ate some chicken wings on camera that were disgusting. As I was chewing them while the camera rolled, I kept thinking ‘we’ve GOT to do a better job vetting these places.” And to this day, that’s the only time that has ever happened.  For the record, that restaurant doesn’t exist anymore.

*The moment before Savannah’s first James Beard Foundation Dinner at the former Mansion on Forsyth Park where I watched a Food and Beverage Manager tell his crew “This is the most important dinner this city has ever hosted.”

*Speaking of Beard Dinners, there was that one night our table was doing shots of something expensive (no recollection) via a hollowed out beef bone like a canoe. I’m sure there is a photo of that somewhere.

*The moment I lost out on a check for $4,500 because I wouldn’t say that a particular restaurant’s cheesecake was the best I’d ever had. I wouldn’t because it wasn’t. That restaurant had a good run, but closed years ago.

*The moment I got to meet and visit with Fran Drescher at The Collins Quarter. I sent her to Cotton and Rye for Shrimp and Grits. The conversation was great, and deep inside, I was secretly praying I’d get an invite to join her and her friend. Boo. Alas, this photo is the only memory. What a super sweet lady.

*Then there was the time I was told Johnny Depp had just walked into the back room at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for dinner. I was sitting at the bar. The tension in the room was comical. It’s a wild story I’ve since shared here for our podcast.

*The day I met a Savannah woman in the parking lot of a local television station who took my two hands and told me the story of her and her husband watching my television show every weekend religiously.For many years. He had recently passed. Then she fought back tears as she shared, while still holding my two hands, that she now missed him the most on those weekend mornings when the show is on.

*The moment I ran into a couple from The Landings in a remote corner of Santorini, Greece, because they heard my voice in the distance and here I came around the corner…beer in hand of course.

*The moment I saw Chef Brandon Carter and his entire crew from (at the time) FARM Bluffton, dress pants rolled up, practically swimming in the very shallow pool at The DeSoto Hotel during our Foodie Awards Party. A fine time was being had. They had won Best Restaurant and, as we know now, were just getting started.

*The moment a very young hostess at The Pink House told me she knew who I was….and just as my ego started to swell, she said “you’re Alexandra’s dad.’

*The day the publisher emailed me a contract to write my first book. It had been promised, but it took 5 weeks to arrive. That in between was, as you might imagine, brutal.

*The moment, in 2014, when I got a random DM from my friend and former television colleague Lyndy Brannen. The note said, “You’re doing it! Keep going. I’m damn glad to know ya! And the only thing that’s better than you doing is that you are doing it and you ain’t from here.”

*Today, simply because it was another opportunity to do something I am passionate about for a living. Something that has never been lost on me. Thanks to all for your continued support.

# # #