For the last leg of Cheap Eats Season 3, we head back east to old New England. Timing is everything they say and since we landed in Providence in June, we lucked out with the weather. Summers in New England are a beautiful thing which is part the Austinite in me who longs to leave triple digit weather but is also the Los Angeleno in me that can tip my cap to a 72 degree and sunny kinda life style. ...

Oh Milwaukee, you easy going blue collar Midwestern city you. Visiting a town like this makes me feel proud to have been reared in the Midwest. For all my adventuring on the left coast, I smile bright when I get to sing the praises of a Midwest city that could make a well heeled San Franciscan a little envious, at least on the food front. But the Bay Area is all about being pricey these days and you and me ...

Motor City. Motown. You’re gonna find 8 mile here plus a few more miles. Detroit can and should conjure up some strong images, dare I say preconceived notions. Well, all I can tell you is what I saw and what I ate: a diverse American metropolis that loves their food, thereby supporting the communities behind it. There I go again, getting kinda PBS on y’all when I could just say that you could eat a week’s worth of shawarma and ...

Yup. Cheap Eats went to the ‘Nati. And thanks to my Midwest rearin’, the town almost felt like home, or like a family member you see every summer, a cousin if you will. Just swap out the toasted raviolis for chili on spaghetti noodles, the Cardinals for the Reds and Cincinnati was like my hometown from an alternate universe. But even in an alternate universe, the same Cheap Eats rules apply: $35 to eat the town UP. And that we ...

Nashville. Aka Music City. This town has certainly earned a reputation for music and with a music scene comes hungry musicians looking to eat cheap and well. And that we found my friends but I would be flat out lying if I didn’t tell that I had one thing on my mind when we came here: Nashville Hot Chicken. In my 20s, those jovial and carefree years, yours truly was a bit of a hot head. I craved, sought out ...

Spokane on the brain! Yeah, I definitely has Spokane on the brain. If you caught this episode you would have also caught on to the fact that the crisp air caught me for a bit of a cold. I give props to the magic of television and the amazing people serving up Cheap Eats in Spokane, who helped me pull through what was the toughest shoot of my life. I think this episode flowed and the energy I found here ...

Virginia is for lovers, or so the cool t-shirts say. When I think about how Cheap Eats has hit up the Commonwealth three times in two season, I think the t-shirt could be tweaked to say “Virginia is for Food Lovers”. I love Virginia and I say that thinking about the terrifying events that unfolded in Charlottesville over the weekend. I’m yearning for love and healing while dealing with the fear and anger that has enveloped us with the events ...

If someone was to ask me for a good Indian restaurant recommendation, my first thought is a divey curry joint. Not one in particular really, although I think back to the four or five blocks of LA’s Koreatown that became designated Little Bangladesh, and the ideal spot has a row of steam trays to be avoided, Bollywood videos blaring off a cheap television set, members of the Indian sub continent diaspora lounging about for most of a hazy afternoon, and ...

Portlandia. PDX. Or just plain Portland, Oregon. Whatever you call it, we all know this city has a rep for food, style and weather. This was not my first visit to the PDX. In 2014 I was sent all along with an army of food bloggers(vloggers) armed with the now defunct Tastemade app to shoot and eat the heck out of this venerable food town. I discovered loads of young chefs taking fried chicken seriously, farm to table tacos, plenty of ...