Episode 1: Franklin Barbecue Broke Me

In this episode, I'm going to tell you about a trip to a restaurant where the food was so incredible. I stopped being hungry for about two days after eating there, and I had to force myself to eat. Not only that, I couldn't write about it. And it gave me such writer's block that despite having enough content from that visit, and many others, I found myself unable to write about anything food related.

In October of 2019, I found myself in the fortunate situation of being able to make a pilgrimage to the “Mecca of Barbecue,” when I took a trip to Austin, Texas to photograph speakers at a digital marketing conference. I specifically scheduled myself appropriately, so that I would have one morning free to wait on line and eat lunch at Franklin Barbecue.

I went with the intention of creating a lot of content around the experience. I recorded video, for the purpose of starting a food vlog. I took notes on the flavors and the experience as a whole. I (of course) took many photographs of the food for the blog I thought I would write. I even interviewed other guests in line.

So what did I do with all of that content?

Nothing.

The blog I intended to write is still unwritten. The photos I took remain unedited. The video I captured remains unseen.

Why?

It’s hard to explain but to the best of my self-psychoanalyzing, I believe that because the amount of meat I ate knocked my body so out of sorts, I wasn’t in the mood to think about anything. Additionally, the food was so incredible, I think I suffered from a performance anxiety of sorts; I didn’t think, despite being talented with a camera and a pen, that I would do this incredible food justice.

It actually created such a creative block within me that I couldn’t write about anything food-related until I began this podcast.

You can listen to this episode with the audio player above or by subscribing to the George Eats Everywhere Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and others.