Where the Locals Eat: A Guide to the Best Restaurants in America
"Knowing what I know about all of these restaurants, I can say 'Where the Locals Eat' has met my challenge.  Magellan Press has taken the guesswork out of picking a good restaurant when I'm far from home.  It's nice to know no matter where ai travel, I'll be able to get a hot cup of coffee and a decent piece of pie."  --Judy Morgan, The Tampa Tribune, 8/3/97"This isn't a paperback book you'd curl up with on a long winter's night, but you may be tempted to drag it all over the United States with you."  --Sarah Lindsay, Delta Airlines Sky Magazine, 1/97"Travelers usually wind up eating in a particular restaurant by default," says Lee Wilson.  "It's on their route, or close to their hotel, or maybe it's a chain they know from home.  We want to help people avoid routine for routine's sake."The aid Wilson proffers is the 1,200-page Where the Locals Eat," at $19.95 the only guidebook to encapsulate in one volume the best indigenous fare in more than 1,000 U.S. cities and towns.  While other directories list only diners, gourmet chow or famous chefs' favorites, Wilson's points wayfarers twoard "good food at a good price anywhere in Amereicaand a chance to sample the flavor of the place where you find yourself."For each locale, eateries are categorized definitivelyranging from kosher or soul food to good late-night snack spots, the best places to take kids and the best places to eat when someone else is buying.For more than two years, Wilson and her staff of eight canvassed most U.S. municipalities with populations greater than 20,000.  They quizzed friends and colleagues, and scanned Web sites and local magazine and newspaper polls."But mostly we just asked people," she says.  Her squad phoned or sent questionnaires to insurance offices, university staffers, newpaper reportersanyone who might have initimate knowledge of their local dining scene.At the same time, Wilson was comparing paper for the optimum combination of thinness, durability and opaquness.  The result is a volume that's just 4 by 9 inches, about 1 3/4 inches thick, and tips the scale at 1 3/4 pounds.  "It's designed to fit into a briefcase or glove compartment," Wilson adds.  "This is a travel tool."After selling about 18,500 copies in a little more than a year, Wilson and her crew are busy assembling the next editionsoon to be an annual event, she says."For the new edition, 33% to 45% of the material will be reresearched and updated," she says.  "We want people planning a trip to say to themselves, 'I have to get an atlas and I have to get the latest edition of Where the Locals Eat.'" --Ambassador Magazine, 5/98"When you're a stranger visiting a strange land, it's tough to tell a restaurant that prepares genuine regional home-cooking from an over-priced tourist trap.  If wondering where to eat has left you running to the golden arches, your days of dining desperation are behind you.Where the Locals Eat (Magellan Press, Inc., 1996; $19.95) is a glove-compartment-size, 1,200-page guide to locals' favorite eateries in small towns and metropolitan areas in all 50 states.  Restaurants are judged by area residents and restaurant critics and are categorized from Best Health-Conscious Menu to Best Cheap Meal.  Whether you're traveling on business or on vacation with a pack of hungry kids, you'll find a good place to eat.  Of course, a guide of this magnitude is both subjective and quickly out-of-date.  But it does make dining out in a new town more pleasant than choosing between the lesser of two fast-food evils." --Caroline Crawford, Eating Well, 11/97"You're in a new town and you don't want to eat at a fast-food chain, but so many restaurants are listed in the Yellow Pages, what's a body to do?  You can ask a local where to go, or you can take along Magellan Press' Where the Locals Eat."  --Kristi Abuhl, Northwest Airlines World Traveler Magazine, 3/98"You're on your way to cousin Betsy's wedding in Valentine, Neb., population 2, 826.  You arrive at noon, but the wedding's not until 6.  Junior is bored and hungry.  You and Dad are frantically looking for a good meal, but you don't know anything about the restaurants in town.  How do you choose?Your daughter has just given birth to a baby boy.  The excited grandparents that you are, you arrive to visit the new family and lend a hand, not to mention spoil the little tyke.  On your way to Philadelphia, the hunger pains hit as you pass through Swarthmore, Pa., (pop. 6,157).  How do you find a winner?The answers are in the new book, Where the Locals Eat (Magellan Press, softcover, $19.95), a guide to more than 10,000 restaurants across the country.  A good size for your glove compartment or briefcase, the guide is a response to the fact that more people visit towns than metropolitan areas.  With more than 75 different categories, you will find every type of restaurant imaginableMexican, Italian, homestyle and romantic.  It also features restaurants for the budget conscious, young families or even a business lunch with the boss.The best part about this new guide is the restaurants are independently listednone paid for the privilege.  Hometown residents had to recommend the restaurant for it to be included.  And, who knows better where to eat in Powell, Wyo., than the people living there?If you travel a lot on business or for pleasure, I highly recommend this book." --Julie Anderson, Grit, 3/23/97