How to Start a Food List for Your State

A good way to start a food list for your state is to stop trying to cover the state. A state is a big place, with farm towns, port cities, college towns and highways, and no one has eaten everywhere. Begin with a handful of dishes you know well, fifteen entries in five categories, and add one meal at a time.

Choose a scope you can finish: a region, a season or a dish. Add the best day to go, and drop closed places twice a year.

Why start a food list for your state?

Because the best places to eat are rarely on the main road, and the knowledge of where they are lives in heads, not on maps. A list turns that knowledge into something you can hand to a friend. It also gives you a reason to try the town one county over.

A state list is also a record of change. Restaurants open, close and improve. A list kept over years tells you which ones lasted.

What scope should a state list have?

Start narrow. Pick three to five categories, such as breakfast, barbecue or seafood, a regional dish and a place for a special dinner. Within each, aim for three entries. That is about fifteen places, which is enough to be useful and small enough to keep up.

Name the region of the state next to each entry, so that you can see gaps. If every entry is from the capital, the list is a city list, and that is fine, but it is not yet a state list.

How do you rate local restaurants consistently?

Use the same marks everywhere. A simple set is food, welcome and value. Food is what is on the plate. Welcome is how you were treated and whether the room suits the meal. Value is whether the experience feels fair for what you paid.

Give each a plus, a minus or a shrug, and write one line. Rate dishes, not just places: "best green chile stew" is more useful than "good restaurant." The Lexington restaurants guide shows one way local dishes can organize a trip.

How do you decide which places are worth the drive?

A list of restaurants worth the drive should be stricter than a general list. Ask three questions. Would you make the trip for this meal alone? Does it offer something you cannot get at home? Would you take a guest there?

If the answer is yes to all three, mark it with a note of how far it is and what else is nearby. Add a nearby stop, such as a farm stand, a park or a museum, so that the drive becomes a day. A place that is excellent but ordinary may belong on the main list and not the drive list.

How do you build a state food list that stays accurate?

Review it twice a year. Cross out places that have closed. Add a date to each entry so you know how recent your visit was. If a place has changed hands, say so. Ask friends in other regions to add one entry each.

Keep a short list of places you want to try. A wish list is a good habit, since it keeps the main list honest: only places you have eaten at count.

How do you share your favorite restaurants?

Share with a reason. "Best biscuit in the county" or "worth the drive for the pie" is a clear invitation. Write the name, the town and the dish. Send it to a friend who is traveling through, with a note about the season and the day to go.

Hold a swap. Ask a friend from another state to share their top three, and trade. You will learn something about both states. The road trip planning guide explains how to fit a list into a drive.

How can you keep it fun?

Set a small goal, such as one new place a month. Take a friend along. Note the best thing and the thing you would change. Avoid turning the list into a chore.

When you travel, bring the list. Ask locals to add to it. A conversation at a counter can lead to the best entry of the year. The US guides hub shows how other cities and regions are described, and the guide to finding good food in a new city helps when you are far from home.

What if your state is small, or very large?

In a small state, the whole list can fit on a page, and a weekend can cover most of it. In a large state, divide it into regions and treat each as its own list. A drive of four hours is a trip, not a lunch, and the list should say so.

Whatever the size, finish with a short note on the one meal you would give a visitor with only a day.

How this works in the app: Make a list.

How can Mosey help with a state list?

Follow the friends whose taste you trust and the Friends' picks layer on the Mosey map shows the places they rated or saved, a quick way to find candidates for your list from people whose taste you already know.

Before the next long drive, get the Mosey app, rate the dishes you know best and build a list for your state that you would be proud to hand to a stranger.