Welcome, hungry people
Hey, I’m Bob Morris and I run this joint. Glad you’re here.
You might know me from my years as a newspaper columnist (Fort Myers News-Press, USA Today, Orlando Sentinel, New York Times Regional Newspaper Group), but you’d really be dating yourself because I jumped that ship a long time ago.
Since then I’ve written for magazines (Islands, National Geographic Traveler, Bon Appetit and, curiously, Men’s Fitness), been a magazine editor (Aqua, Caribbean Travel & Life, Gulfshore Life), taught writing at Rollins College and published a bunch of novels set in Florida and the Caribbean (Bahamarama, Jamaica Me Dead, Bermuda Schwartz, A Deadly Silver Sea, Baja Florida.)
Nowadays, I’m the head guy at Story Farm, a custom publishing company where I work with my older son, Bo, who is much smarter than me, along with designers, writers and editors scattered all over the country. We create coffee-table style books for chefs/restaurants, hotels/resorts, artists/museums and anyone who has an interesting story to tell. It’s a lot of fun.
So why are you here on Substack?
Because I miss the newspaper business. I miss the every day give-and-take of writing something and having readers respond, even when they responded to say I was an idiot who shouldn’t be allowed to foist off words on an unsuspecting public.
Once, in response to a column where I facetiously mentioned shooting my dog, a reader sent me a box full of a dog’s most notable daily deposit. I considered it fair comment. And I deposited the box under my editor’s desk where it sat for way too long before it was discovered.
What can we expect on the menu for Bob’s Diner?
Like the sign up top says, it will be an ever-changing menu sourced from whatever fresh ingredients I can find. In other words: You’ll be taking your chances.
I plan to serve a couple of main courses each week, along with some tasty snacks in between. I hope you’ll become a regular around here.
