ODE to Oshkosh

An article in yesterday's New York Times (registration required) makes it sound like Oshkosh doesn't have much in the way of restaurants. It's about this TV show, "The Restaurant," and it includes this quote:

I think that some place, in Oshkosh, or wherever, that this show could stimulate a desire for the energy of restaurants in big cities. To us it's almost banal, but you go to most towns, you get McDonald's and the 24-hour diner. This exposes middle America to an energy that maybe they do not know. And that is positive for the industry.

The quote is from Lidia Bastianich, who is described as "chef and co-owner of Felidia and Becco, and the star of the public television series "Lidia's Italian-American Table."

If you want to set her straight here's her e-mail.

If you want to do a little bit more, read on.

Here at the Oshkosh Community News Network, we are thinking about creating an online guide to local eateries. It would be called ODE, for Oshkosh Dining & Entertainment.

Instead of being written by professional restaurant goers, it would be written by the people who really matter, the amateur restaurant goers like you and me.

You could post your comments, positive or negative, about various restaurants around town, and we'd even let restaurants respond to negative reviews.

Interested? Drop me a line.

Welcome to the Oshkosh Community News Network!

Our motto is "working together on a new kind of journalism," and this is our first project.

Our goal is to promote participatory journalism, and to that end we invite anyone and everyone to make their voices heard. In the shaded box to the right, you will find an e-mail link that will allow you to join this blog.

We are looking for "serious" journalism, information about important issues affecting our community. But we are also looking for personal news that may be of interest.

In the coming weeks, we will be rolling out our Web site and announcing some other projects.

Stay tuned!