CLEARFIELD – “One of my rules of thumb is to ask locals,” said Ken Hull, artist and author of the new book going LOCAL!.
Going LOCAL!, released four months ago and having sold just about 14 hundred books, is a guide to “locally” owned restaurants within a seventy-mile radius of Boalsburg, the author’s home, including such dining locations as the Restless Oaks Restaurant, the Osceola Mills VFW and Denny’s Beer Barrel and Pub. The latter where Hull visited last Friday for a book signing.
“I’ve been going to these places a long time. Mostly with my friends on motorcycle trips and that kind of stuff. Even on my own, I made my living as an artist most of my life. So I had to travel around to a lot of cities across the country,” said Hull when asked what gave him the idea for the book.. “I don’t know what happened, but at one point I just couldn’t take going to another chain.”
In order to get around this Hull began asking local people for recommendations. All the locals were unique in appearance and food taste.
“You can be sitting in a Ruby Tuesday in State College or a Ruby Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio and have no idea you are in a different state. So you can’t tell where you are,” said Hull. “So when we would go on these motorcycle trips … it is all fun to go on a ride, but it is funner when you had a destination. So because I was local eatery savvy, my friends would have me pick the location.”
After a case of artist’s block in 2006, Hull decided to follow on recommendations his friends had been making to write a book on these locations. Hull began writing going LOCAL! working on an area within a 140 mile diameter circle using last Spring, Summer and Fall to flesh out the circle by finding locations to balance out the locations. In this phase of the book he visited locations he had heard about but never got around to visiting, and made some unexpected discoveries.
Like the Ocseola Mills VFW.
“Which is some place I never thought I would write about,” explained Hull. “It’s a VFW, right? When you think about a VFW you don’t think about going out to eat, but it is a really big story in my book. It takes up the most pages.”
Other locations, like Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, were places already known to Hull.
“What do I like about Denny’s? Everything!” answered Hull to the question he repeated.
Describing the place as friendly, Hull went on to describe the “cool vibe” from the decor: the age, the wood panel ceilings, the wood floors. Describing the total effect as giving Denny’s “character”.
“[Chain eateries] are all the same. There is no lived in feel,” said Hull.
Describing it as a “huge turning point” in his life as it was a whole new way of being creative. The book was completely self-published, and contributed the success of the book to help from locals. Both in advice on how to turn his pages into a printed book and establishments in his book and not included.
“I think it’s great. It is quite a tribute to what we do for someone to take the time to write about us,” said Denny Leigey.
When asked about he would recommend at Denny’s, Hull seemed to go over nearly everything on the menu, saying he liked all the variety and wouldn’t be surprised if he stumbled across Chinese. The hamburgers and the Irish section stood out in the flood of recommendations, but his immediate recommendation was the veggie melt wrap. Something he hadn’t as of the interview yet tried himself, but had recommended to him often on his visits to Denny’s by other patrons.
“That is my first rule of thumb, ask a local,” said Hull later on, perhaps explaining why the visitor from Boalsburg’s first suggestion was something he had yet to try himself.
