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Source: Jeff Pearl
Good Eats
Jeff Pearl blogs his way through the Chicago food scene BY SARAH RENSE If you’re eating out in a Chicago restaurant and the guy next to you is snapping an obnoxious number of pictures of his meal, chances are his name is Jeff Pearl, and those photos are about to appear on his food blog, Jeff Eats Chicago. Described as “one man’s journey through a city of food,” the blog consists of written reviews that accompany the pictures Pearl (Feinberg ‘13) takes, along with a rating for each meal. The rating is based on a five-point scale, or the five “Pearl” scale. Pearl, who is only 26, isn’t a foodie, and he hasn’t been trained in the culinary arts. As he says, “I was a fat kid. Does that count?” His opinion is valued because he compares restaurants instead of focusing on the nitpicky things the average diner wouldn’t care about. “I don’t know what to say about something if I’ve never eaten it before, but I can pretty much say that this pasta is better or worse than 10 other Italian pastas in the city,” Pearl said. Pearl’s blog began about four years ago when classmates
began to pester him for restaurant suggestions in the area. “I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and people kind of assumed I knew these things, even though I had no idea,” Pearl said. “I was kind of pushed into that position.” Pearl began to email lists of his favorite spots to his classmates, and one of those lists ended up in the inbox of a CBS employee. CBS needed someone to write a food blog for Chicago, and Pearl got the job. Four years later, the blog is still going strong. A readership that began with a few classmates and Pearl’s mother has grown into almost 6,000 monthly visitors to the website. One of Pearl’s friends from his undergrad years, Marc Kovarsky, occasionally contributes to Jeff Eats Chicago. “I think the best blogs are the ones that are always changing and updating,” Kovarsky said. “It’s amazing with how busy Jeff is that he keeps updating it.” Food blogging isn’t a full-time gig, and even though Pearl has picked up some freelance jobs writing for Foodie.com » See GOOD EATS, page 2
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