Get to Know @Mealightenment [Week 1] Spotlight

My, how time flies.

Well, here we are.  The blog is officially over 1 year old as of December 6th.  I never thought Mealightenment would get to be just where it is today, and about how much potential the future of this blog has.  I'd never imagined that I would have two other guys working alongside with me, sharing my same passion about my city and how/where I choose to eat and spend my money.  I'd never dreamed that we'd be on nearly every spectrum of social media. Heck, I'd thought that we would never produce stickers for friends and family members to show their support for what we do.  Sincerely, from everyone who has read our blog or even glanced over our material in the last year, I just want to say thanks.  You may not know how much it affects us here, but it allows us to continue on on this crazy journey and evolution that the blog has gone through.  You, our friends, our readers, and our city of #Indy are exactly why we do what we do.  I can only promise you, that there is definitely more to come in 2013.

I don't know how this month has been for everyone, but simply put, it's been insane on our end.  Two of the three of us have had classes finishing up, along with work, and the hectic nature of the holidays.  We have decided for the last several weeks of this month, to take a break from our normal type of blog, and just post a feature highlighting the guys that work on the blog @ Mealightenment, asking both fun and serious questions.  This weeks feature just so happens to be about me (Justin). 

Eat On,

--JG

Justin Grose - Week 1 Spotlight

Getting to Know @Mealightenment

(Week 1) Spotlight-Justin Grose

What is your favorite recipe that we've posted on the blog?

JG: I might be biased, but I REALLY like the French Dip recipe.  What better than a giant slab of slow-cooked beef that marinates all day.  Oh, and my recipe has beer in it.

What's the best meal you know to cure a hangover?

JG: I think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and when hungover, the greasier the better.  A giant omelette with sausage patties, peppers, onions, toast and a Bloody Mary really hit the spot. Always remember to re-fill the booze tank (hair of the dog) early in the morning; just a little bit kicks any jitters you may have the next morning.

If you had to eat 1 food for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

JG: Easy.  My first job was in food service working at Burger King.  Years later, even after working and preparing the food there, I could still eat a Whopper each and every day for the rest of my life.  It's America's favorite burger for a reason...

What's the one thing you'd never eat?

JG: Well, some of us recently were talking about ideas for the blog back in October, and "taboo foods" came up in conversation, and we found the top 10 most taboo worldwide.  Of the ten, number 1 on the list was horse meat...there's absolutely no way I could ever try it.

What's the feature you'd most like to see added to Mealightenment?

JG: I've been really hyped about the vlog-section of Mealightenment, and I really hope that we can work out the logistics of it, and start filming it ASAP, for release after the first of the year.  We've just had to keep putting this off, and putting it off, now with our scheduled break, we'll be set for the rest of the year to use that time for filming.

Do you see anything like "Tastin' Tuesday" or another free sample day, taking off for our blog?

JG: I think that the potential is definitely there...we may just need to figure out how we can make it happen.  Partnership with a business or with a restaurant is likely the only route.  Right now, unless a business were to just completely volunteer it's service to us, it's not likely.  Until we've grown our presence on the interwebs, can we even begin to think about something like this...though I do wish for more community involvement in the near future.

What was your first thought about joining the blog world?

JG: Honestly, I though it was dumb.  When I built the site, I didn't touch it for almost 4 months because in my head, I kept saying, "This is stupid, who wants to read this?" I really wanted a hobby to turn into something that I could share with others.  Then along came Devin, who showed interest while tagging along with me on my first interview.  After realizing the potential interest of others, I was hooked.  Now that I have 2 great partners here at Mealightenment, and we have a vision for the future, I think that the sky's the limit--so long as we keep our heads on straight and keep on churning out good content for the masses to enjoy.  I never thought that we would be where we are now.  I mean, yeah, we're not famous by any means of the sort.  We do, however, push out great content that we produce ourselves, and our social media presence is a little shaky, but getting much better.  I think that if the three of us finalize our strategy for our content and our social media practices, and have everyone contributing equally, then we will be unstoppable in 2013!

Have you ever been smacked in the face by a meal (literally; i.e. pie, care, burrito, etc)? 

JG: I took a pie in the face once for a fundraiser in high school.  My wife and I elected to opt out of the traditional cake-face smashing at our wedding.