What would you do if you were a writer and hit the Globe and Mail bestseller list not once, but twice, in a year?
If you’re Canmore writer Mike Vlessides, you downplay it and simply say, “it feels really good,” before veering off on a tangent to show off photos of a monstrous bacon-wrapped hot dog barely visible through layers of dripping cheese, a fried egg, chili and a thick slab of ham.
But then, with a wide smile betraying his sense of humour and good nature, he says what he’s really thinking about his recent accomplishment.
“To have two books on the best seller list in a year is crazy,” he said Feb. 25. “It’s way more than you could hope for. I’m not naive enough to think it’s because I’m that great of a writer. I think I’m good at what I do, but it certainly helps to have a TV show to draw off of.
“But it is still nice to know that people are enjoying what you write. At the end of the day, I think I’m good at writing stuff that people enjoy reading and this book is not highbrow.”
The book Vlessides is referring to happens to be You Gotta Eat Here! Canada’s Favourite Hometown Restaurants and Hidden Gems, co-authored with the show’s host John Catucci and based on Catucci’s TV show of the same name featured on the Food Network.
You Gotta Eat Here! reached the cooking/food bestseller list last December, while Vlessides’ book, The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North, was on the bestseller list at the beginning of 2012.
And 2012 isn’t the first time Vlessides has seen the sunny side of the Globe’s bestseller list; both of the books he wrote for Les Stroud of Survivorman were on that list as well.
And just as Vlessides said You Gotta Eat Here! is not highbrow, neither are the 78 great classic joints featured on the TV show and in the book; those memorable, comfortable, one-of-a-kind places where you can get a nine-pound burger, a giant hotdog slathered in extras or an authentic Montreal smoked meat sandwich.
“None of the places in here are highbrow,” Vlessides said. “The writing is not highbrow. It is just very conversational and that was very refreshing to write. As a matter of fact, when (the production company goes) out and scout restaurants, if a place seems too highbrow, they won’t include it. They’re all about joints; people who care about food,” he said.
HarperCollins Publishers contacted Vlessides in March of last year, asking him if he would be interested in writing the book. And by April, after an initial conversation with Catucci, he had begun writing. The book was on the stands by November.
“The first time I spoke to (Catucci) I knew I was going to work with him. We just hit it off. We have the same twisted sense of humour. We’re about the same age. We just related to each other. It’s like talking to a brother,” Vlessides said.
“It was a great book to write. It was really fun. I don’t like the term ‘foodie.’ I’m not a foodie, but I like food and I like going out to eat and I like places with personality. It was writing about food and people committed to food and who believe in food and I really like that aspect about it.”
Vlessides said that once you get past the giant burgers and the plates of poutine that do indeed grace the pages of the book, it also offers “really interesting food” made by “really creative people.”
Vlessides, who was born in New York City, got his start in the writing world in 1987 after graduating from New York University’s School of Journalism. His first job out of university was on Park Avenue with a development program for Major League Baseball, grooming him to be a future baseball executive.
“I worked there for a couple of years and realized it was kind of meaningless. I remember saying the biggest decision I make every day is what kind of bagel I’m going to have for breakfast,” he said.
Vlessides left Park Avenue, New York City and the suits and ties behind, eventually finding his way to Yellowknife, N.W.T. where he accepted a job as editor of Up Here Magazine. From there, he migrated south to Canmore. It was in Yellowknife that Vlessides got to know Les Stroud prior to Stroud’s successful TV show Survivorman.
“At that point Les was a relative nobody. He was just a guy who knew a lot about wilderness survival and he had some film training,” Vlessides said, adding Stroud would ask him to write text for him.
“I was always writing for him, just as a buddy. When Survivorman hit big and HarperCollins approached Les about doing a book he asked me. That was how I got the Ice Pilots gig,” Vlessides said. “I’ve written five books in my life and none of them did I approach anybody. They all came to me, which is a dream come true.
“I think if you do a good job and are easy to work with, the work comes in.”
You Gotta Eat Here! Canada’s Favourite Hometown Restaurants and Hidden Gems, published by HarperCollins, is available for $29.99. In Calgary, the book profiles Diner Deluxe, Fat City Franks, Jelly Modern Doughnuts, Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus, and Tubby Dog, which is where Vlessides found that monstrous hot dog with its chili, egg and ham.
