Eating

I like to go out.  I like standing in a forest and feeling the space between trees; I like, on occasion, the oppressive crowd of a popular bar; I like to park in a coffee shop and share space with caffeinated clients and observing baristas.  Spaces, and the objects and people within them, have different personalities fueled by the community in which they are situated.  Every time I come back to Grand Rapids I think about who I am surrounded by where I live, not only in active friendships but also in the sort of off-gassed attitudes of everybody else out and about in town.  The personality of a group of disconnected people reinforce the personality of a city and may possibly be part of the reason a few disappointing things, people, or experiences can drive a wedge between a person and a place.

I was out last night with my dear friend Rachel and she pointed out all the young men entering the bar when it dawned on me.  Here in Grand Rapids, downtown on a Saturday night, there are young professionals out socializing.  They frequent bars and restaurants and coffee shops that have emerged in response to the young peoples' interest in reasonably-priced food and drink that exceeds their college budget but matches their slightly more generous income garnered at the start of their career.  Some food is more costly, some less so.  Many offerings are swanked-up comfort foods or entry-level unusual.  We shared a few small plates.  A delicious poutine with stick to your ribs gravy and cheese curds from a local farm; a tasty mac and cheese with gruyere because why not; and kale chips, light and crumbly.  Nothing particularly unusual, save that poutine has only recently begun appearing on American menus west of Pennsylvania.

Grand Rapids does food in a way that a young person wants to experience it.  A little adventure, and lot of quality, and a middling amount of money.  Champaign caters to the college, the cheap, the drunk, the disinterested in flavor.  I, of course, am wearing rose-colored glasses in reflection, but the difference still stands.  Champaign in many ways revels in the tradition of the college, the ability to buy alcohol young and drink it on the cheap, the draw of fried foods with the metabolism to keep the fattening effects at bay.  For undergraduate students, this is exciting and fun, part of the reason they have come to central Illinois.  In Grand Rapids, graduates stay and demand something else from the city.  These people begin to grow up and have asked the city to do so with them.  And I believe Grand Rapids has complied. 

The next place I live I hope to find something more similar to Grand Rapids in personality and perhaps I'll even stay put for more than twelve months in one place.