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SPECIAL
SECTION
CHEAP
EATS 2001
GENTLE READERS,
Welcome to yet another edition of Cheap Eats--Willamette Week's
annual guide to bargain grub. Hope you're hungry.
Every year we
try to make this as useful a document as possible. We cram it with
the 100 best cheap eats in the city and feature articles we hope
will amuse and enlighten. Even though the year is 2001, we are
just earth-bound humans, and we'd like to take this time
to explain ourselves. Here's a FAQ about CE 2001 that hopefully
quells any questions that keep you up at night:
How do you
pick the 100 Cheap Eats restaurants?
This is not
a very scientific process, thankfully. Our list is culled by our
own eating experiences from the past year as well as input from
readers and restaurant owners. To reach our 100, we sent reviewers
to more than 125 places. If a reviewer had a bad experience at a
place, we sent them back for a second shot. We tried to create a
diverse list that covers many styles of food and a bunch of different
neighborhoods. This list is exclusionary by nature--any guide that
purports to pick a set number of anything will always be that way.
Still, if your favorite restaurant isn't in here, it just may be
because we haven't heard of it. Write in at cbrooks@wweek.com
and help the cause.
What do you
consider a cheap eat?
Our basic guidelines:
Less than $8 for lunch and less than $15 for dinner per entree.
You'll see that our cheap eats run the gamut from tacquerias where
you can get a $3.50 burrito to more pub-oriented places where you'll
spend closer to $15 but the ambiance and quality make it a great
deal.
Does Willamette
Week actually pay for 100 meals?
Yep. We also
go in anonymously, in order to get the same treatment any other
customer would receive.
Can I be
your friend?
It's true, friends
come out of the woodwork when it's cheap-eats time. But true friends
are the ones who will jog with you in the morning to work off the
extra poundage.
Yours in Cheap
Eating,
Caryn
B. Brooks, a.k.a. Miss Dish
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