Born: May 22, 2001

Laid to rest: August 20, 2008.

What an interesting run the Post-Dispatch Let’s Eat section had. Well before I joined the P-D staff in April of 2002, food editor Judy Evans had been prototyping, revising, cajoling and lobbying that St. Louis was ready for much more than the few pages of what was, up to that point, simply called “Food” every Wednesday in the paper.

Right out of the gate, the newly dubbed Let’s Eat was 12 to 20 pages of weekly food features. Advertisers seemed to like it as well, including some who had never previously advertised in the newspaper. We were blessed with a team structure that spread out our talents across various areas: Cleora Hughes always found the human side of everyone she wrote about; Babette Morgan, who doubled as an accept-nothing-but-perfection copy editor, wrote the weekly Hard/Easy column with a homespun touch; and Judy managed to map out sections that week after week would satisfy fans of everything from jello molds to green-pea-and-mint ice cream.

That latter realm — unusual to downright weird — was my specialty on the staff. Not just freaky stuff, but also the separation of myth from fact on Provel, pork steaks and other quintessentially St. Louis items. And without knowing it (because the word hadn’t even been invented yet), we were rabid locavores, always holding our focus on Missouri goat cheese or Illinois burgoo or what’s new at the local farmers markets.

The first year of our existence, we were honored with the James Beard Award, generally considered the highest accolade in food writing. In two of the three following years, we were again nominated for the Beard award.

But all good things must pass. The newspaper business, as everyone knows, got incredibly rocky. Buyouts became the byword of the newsroom, and soon our little team was reduced to Judy and me (although Babette continued to write Hard/Easy after she took a buyout, and some very good copy editors took her place after she left).

Next week, Let’s Eat merges with the formerly Monday Healthy & Fit section to form Eat, Drink, Live. (I think it was Judy who’d suggested it be called Eat & Run; I was a proponent of Healthy & Fat. Another suggestion that got left on the cutting-room floor was augmenting our weekly recommendation, Best Bites, with a weekly pan called This Bites. You can see why I don’t work in a marketing job anymore.)

Anyway, the good news is that we’ll still be seeking out the people, stories and recipes that make this such an interesting food town. Drink a toast to Let’s Eat if you will; and then raise a glass to Eat, Drink, Live — and be sure to let us know what you think about the new approach.