Herndon Restaurant Project: Introduction

Seven years ago, when moving to Bowie, I started the Bowie Restaurant Project, with the goal of reviewing all the restaurants in Bowie. I got within two restaurants of finishing, then we moved, new restaurants opened, and I'm somewhat behind. I still work in Bowie, so I still do occasional reviews, but I am abandoning my quest for completeness there.

Now we live in Herndon, and I'm eager to start reviewing restaurants there. Let me review key similarities and highlight key differences between the two projects.

Key Similarities

• The Town of Herndon has a restaurant guide I used as a starting point.
• I got to send them a correction, too! (They had missed one restaurant I knew of.)
• I am eliminating places that don't have dine-in options.
• I am eliminating places that don't serve meals (for example, dessert-only locations).

Key Differences

• I am not trying to be complete! Part of the motivation for the Bowie Restaurant Project was living and working there. I will have less chance to dine in Herndon. Also, Herndon dining is more expensive.
• I will review restaurants when I feel like it, rather than requiring a certain number and type of visits. If I had been a teensy bit more relaxed about this, I would have actually finished the Bowie Restaurant Project.
• Although I think the difference between Herndon town limits and Herndon mailing address is meaningful, we are moving out of those town limits, so I will, at least, consider anything in ZIP codes 20170 and 20171 to be Herndon for the purposes of this project.