Lunch with Lisa

It kind of sucks to interview someone for a GR article and never meet him or her. But that's how it goes in this age of phoner and email Q&As. Actually, since many people are more comfortable with email or telephone conversations than actually meeting, those articles usually turn out okay.

What sucks more is to have contributors that you never meet. Lisa Katayama (right) splits time between San Francisco and Tokyo--places I visit infrequently and never, respectively--and has written more than a couple articles to GR. Not only is she good about turning in pieces on time and within our budget (nothing) but her grammar, spelling, and style are impeccable. So it was a pleasure to finally meet her, take her around Sawtelle, and have lunch at gr/eats this afternoon. She brought along her childhood friend from Japan, Yuka, who now lives in Dubai and is probably sick to death of fielding questions about that desert country.

Lisa is cool and so are her articles, her blog, and her friend. Crud, I forgot to take a photo of her dog Ruby--also cool!