Almost Four

Tomorrow the FUSSYlittleBLOG turns four. Man, that snuck up on me. In the past I’ve commemorated the day by hanging out on the deck at Sutter’s. But that’s not going to happen this year.

Tomorrow Mrs. Fussy is going out to dinner, so I’m at home with the kids. I’ll probably make them something they love, so I can enjoy something they hate. That’s always fun. However, I won’t be able to sneak out for blogiversary beers.

Tomorrow I won’t even be able to write about the birthday because this Wednesday is scheduled to be the next Ask the Profussor. And just last night I finally received the question I’ve been waiting on for days. Thank you, Danielle. I should buy you a slice of pizza.

Normally, I don’t believe in commemorating birthdays early. But today I’ll make an exception.

Four years.

In four years I’ve written over 1,200 posts. There have been over 8,000 comments. And the pages of this blog have been seen in total over a half million times. I find that number to be staggering. But even more staggering, the number of people who actually subscribe to the blog is in the hundreds. And every month, if we can believe the WordPress metrics, the FLB reaches thousands of readers.

Wow. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when I’d consider a post to be a blockbuster if it got over 100 views.

Since I started writing the food scene in the region has changed dramatically. So many of my initial gripes have been addressed.

– We now have a cheese shop that sells world class cheeses.
– There’s a wine bar where you can go and enjoy flights of wine.
– Subway is no longer the Capital Region’s Best Sandwich.
– The Times Union restaurant reviews now extend well beyond calamari.
– The old Fresno’s building is no longer sitting vacant on the Troy waterfront.
– Our fanciest restaurant no longer promotes farmed Atlantic salmon.
– Vegetarian food got a whole lot better with the opening of All Good Bakers.
– Chinese food got lifts from Ala Shanghai and then Taiwan Noodle.
– The Supermarket Wars are bringing much needed competition to the area.
– Included in the above was the arrival of Trader Joe’s.
– More local food is showing up on menus.
– There are many more places where one can get a grassfed hamburger.
– Coffee continues to improve.
– We have a place to buy sustainable, delicious, never-frozen fish.
– A bona fide taqueria opened in Schenectady – thank God.

And after all of this time, I think I’ve finally got a handle on the region. I’ve got a better idea of what makes it tick, and a better understanding of its idiosyncrasies. Recently I’ve even been doing better with the plan of reaching out to chefs and building relationships within that community of local professionals.

There is still work to be done. There are still tours to be taken. There are still a lot more things to eat, farms to visit, beers to drink. And there are still plenty more rants to write.

Thanks to all of you who continue to come here every day, or even just periodically, to read these missives about food. It’s a tricky subject, because it can both be totally inconsequential, and at the same time the most important decision we make over the course of the day.

I’m looking forward to another great year. There are some exciting things on the horizon, and I’m looking forward to telling you about them as they get closer. I may celebrate the blogiversary tonight with a drink at the Bier Abbey after my meeting. The Tour de Wings de Troy is currently in the planning stages. And concurrently I’m starting to think about the Tour de Gelato, which was promised either last year or two years ago.

Perhaps some day I’ll get better at pulling together birthday parties. Or I suppose there’s the possibility of some belated celebration. But the best gift I can receive is to have you come back and read the FLB tomorrow, and maybe to have a lurker come out from the shadows every not and again.