From Concept to Preview

We love good food.  Our senses and taste buds come alive when we discover great new restaurants, farmers markets, artisan foods, cooking classes and food tours. We love meeting all the talented local cuisine creators and often find the stories behind their businesses just as fascinating as their food.

We’ve recently met:

• A former bread salesman turned sausage maker turned Penngrove restaurateur.  Amazing sausage!
• A Petaluma insurance agent that was inspired to get into organic farming after reading the book the Omnivore’s Dilemma.  Such a cool experience to be on their farm.
• And a Mendocino fisherman that began making gourmet salt from the water he previously fished.  We never knew salt could be so interesting.

One night after watching “Diner’s Drive-in’s and Dives” on the Food Network we started wondering why there wasn’t something that told these great stories locally.  A place that connected local folks with local food in a fun way... food is supposed to be fun!

So like that bread salesman, insurance agent and fisherman, we took a leap of faith and jumped in wholeheartedly to create Forks Up Sonoma.  Our vision is that Forks Up will be the definitive place to discover and share all those great local restaurants, farms and artisan foods.

We built a website, created the social media pages and then we figured, what the heck, let’s make a magazine too (that way we can send it to people around Sonoma County!).  Of course we plan on creating some cool apps too but that’s down the road a bit.

In Search of Great Food

Our first task was to find all those great local restaurants we have passed by a thousand times but hadn’t ventured into yet, plus the ones we love.  Creating a database of these establishments, we reached out to local mothers clubs, firefighters, realtors, and folks in the neighborhood to create review teams. Off they went to dine and  relay their experiences to us.  At Forks Up we seek honest feedback from real folks… just like you.  And we decided our first rule would be: in order to participate in Forks Up an establishment must first receive a positive review from one of our teams.   That way it keeps everyone honest.

We then found some great local writers to write the articles.  We wanted people who could bring a certain level of art to the stories just as a chef does to a recipe.  After that we loaded up our camera gear and went out to take great food photos… because we’re pretty good photographers. 

Finally, we launched the preview magazine and website.  People went crazy for it! The response has been phenomenal.  Chefs, farms, local food artisans have been calling interested in being reviewed with the hopes of being featured in the Forks Up Network.

Story Examples

Yanni’s Sausage Grill, one of the featured restaurants in the Forks Up preview is a good example of what we’re about. Yanni’s is a 220 sq ft (not a typo) restaurant with seating for 9 (again, not a typo) opened by a former bread salesman. He’s won gold medals two years in a row at the local harvest fair.

The Yanni’s article is called “the Wow Factor.” It is written by a local writer named Michael Larrain and photographed by Margi. The article begins… “Received wisdom insists that there are two things in this world you do not want to see in the making: laws and sausages. But a hole-in-the-wall, almost entirely take-out eatery tucked into the tiny town of Penngrove, has already proven, quite early in its run, to be the exception to this rule. Anyone who’s had the good fortune to fall into Yanni’s Sausage Grill might well want to become acquainted with every part of the process, so savory are the results.” The article continues at Forks Up Sonoma.

Still hungry? Then read more:

• A Religious Experience (Hopmonk)
• A Moveable Feast (Street-eatz)
• French Romance (La Gare)

Now imagine those types of stories covering the entire local food spectrum of restaurants, farms and artisan foods.  Think you’d be able to find something interesting?  We think you will.

Click the “back this project” button above to help us continue to tell these stories and drive the local food economy.

What We Will Use The Money For:

While we  already have over two dozen restaurants reviewed and another dozen restaurants, farms and food artisans waiting to be reviewed, we need a little more money to pay the authors, engineer some new website features and print our first run (up to 15,000 copies) of the debut magazine.

What Are The Forks Up Rules?

• The food must receive a positive review from one of our local review teams.
• Restaurants must be local, so no big chains or franchises. 
• Farmers and Artisan Food creators must sell to the public either directly or through local retailers. 
• We don’t publish bad reviews.  If we receive a less than favorable review, we share that information with the business owner but that is a far as it goes.  We want to promote good food, not hurt the bad.  That’s just bad karma anyway.
• Reviews are done by request of the business owner.  We don’t schedule secret reviews because like we have seen from the TV show Kitchen Nightmares… you can’t hide bad food.  Besides we are interested in the story. We like when our review teams are engaged with the chefs, restaurant owners, farmers and artisan food creators.

What Forks Up Doesn’t Have

• Critics: Our review teams are sent to experience the food. They are not food critics, just normal people who like good food. We want the human story not the angry old man with an ax to grind approach.
• Ratings:  We don’t rate restaurants, farms or artisan foods.  Until 3 stars or 4 clovers mean the same to everyone it’s really a pointless exercise.  We will never tell you which local cheese is the best.  Food is subjective.
• Best of Lists: Forks Up will never ever rank food against each other.  While we certainly have our favorites, they might not be the same as yours.  We ask our review teams to share their experience using descriptive terms so you can get a sense of the food, then you can make your own decisions.
• Negative Reviews:  If you want to read negative reviews you’ll have to go somewhere else.  Negative reviews can kill a business.  And besides does reading a negative review actually enrich your own life?  We doubt it. We are not interested in negative reviews…or sharing them with others.  When we receive a less than favorable review, it stays between us, the review team and the food entrepreneur.   If they’re able to make a living selling bad food, then who are we to take that away from them?

Who Are We?

Kevin – the idea guy.  He’s always tinkering with some new creation… you’ll see a bunch more coming to kickstarter soon!

Margi – the rebel for a cause.  If she is not out and about advocating for a cancer organization,  she’s probably taking pictures somewhere.

Alma – the trained killer.  Every organization needs a great sales person and she’s it!  Alma’s high energy and love for GREAT food is a great mix for the Forks Up Team.

Where Are We?

Initially we’ll just be in Sonoma County.  But we have plans to take the concept to other locales as well. 

Credits:
Yanni's Article Written by Michael Larrain
Photographs by Margi Levin
Background Music: "True Moments" by JewelBeat.com.  Used under their standard license agreement numbered 120306184126.