Last month I was privileged enough to interview St. Louis food blogger Andrew Mark Veety (@amveats).  You can check out his blog here.

I have to admit, his blog and burger domination quest is very impressive.  Not to mention his amazing writing style almost makes me a bit jealous.  With out giving too much away, on with the interview!

1.  Andrew, you started your blog back in June 2008.  Since then, your blog has an impressive track record of grilling techniques, pizza making, and even home brewing.  Can you share your story and any goals you wish to accomplish?

Actually, I’ve been maintaining a blog for well over ten years, the current incarnation has lasted about two years, but its really version five.

I have tried over the years to develop a voice that is my own because I want my posts to have a conversational feel. To me, it does not matter if I’m taking my little brother on a 48 hour eating tour of St. Louis or I’m stuffing a turkey into a brisket, I want my readers to feel like they are there with me. I’m trying to do more showing than telling. I’m not a professional chef or a teacher – I’m a dude who likes to eat and share food with others. I try to not take things so seriously because for me, writing about food is an escape from my day job and I really hope the fact that I’m having fun comes though for the reader.

My site has a few themes that I try to intertwine to keep things interesting; food and its place in American history. I think this plays into my love of cooking, so its not really a stretch to move from eating my favorite foods to making them at home for friends and family.

I’m currently planning the next iteration of my site. The goal will be to maintain the content and context, but hopefully make some changes that add value without taking away from what already works. No matter what I end up rolling out, I’ll do it with small and incremental changes. I really dislike when a site vanishes and a new one shows up overnight.

2.  This year you set out to discover the best burger in St. Louis.  For the record, I am totally down with your burger pilgrimage.  So far, Dressel’s and Sub Zero have taken the first 2 months of 2010.  Can you tell us a bit about this project?

I think you are talking about “The Church of Burger”, a name I can’t even claim as my own. I would be remiss if I didn’t pay credit to Kelli Best-Oliver for coining that one.

The idea for this project was honestly a fragment of a thought I had as I drove into work one morning. I was frustrated that I would get on a roll with my writing, and then life would get in the way and I would go weeks or sometimes months without posting.

The idea of a “burger of the month” or “best burger” is not a unique one, but it acted as a writing assignment I could schedule onto a calendar and an activity I could include my wife and son in on as well.

I continue to be surprised at the reaction I get from my project. Here was this thing that I started on a whim, and it has turned into an event that other folks have a vested interest in. I’ve gotten tons of feedback, suggestions and participation from other people who love food. I think I’m most happy about that because they have helped me refine and really improve this silly idea I had.

While the project is still about me asking my peer group for their favorite burgers, eating them and then choosing the best one, it’s also morphing into collaboration with several other folks who are opinionated, passionate and great food writers in their own right. I’m pretty excited see what this project looks like at the end of the year. The idea will still be there but I hope to have cultivated a new community that I can carry over into the next years project, which won’t be burgers. I don’t want to say more than that, but it think it will touch a nerve both in both positive and negative ways just like the concept of burgers did.

3.  Let’s switch gears a bit…you are a foodie and blogger at heart (and a devoted father).  I see so many people start blogging and become discouraged after 2 months.  Yet, you have managed to stay motivated for close to 2 years.  Do you have any advice for noob bloggers?

I think like anything you want to be good at, writing is something that you have to practice. The availability of free blogging tools allows people to have an idea and five minutes later have a post out. But I think this low barrier to entry also allows people to start up before they have a set of goals designed to take you past that initial bit of inspiration. People end up trying to boil the proverbial ocean instead of really drilling down on a topic or content space.

It might take the sense of fun out of writing a blog, but moving past that initial phase of writing really requires a plan and defined scope. It does not have to be a formal document, but getting these concepts down on paper will help to spell out what your goals are and can keep you from straying away from them. Distilling your idea down into a sentence or two also helps, even if you only use it as metadata for search engines.

This is not to say you can’t evolve and revisit this plan as you tastes change, but I think it helps put your goals into context and gives you a target to aim at. Along the same lines a writer needs to understand that a change in content or style will undoubtedly create a response from your readers, including potentially losing them.

4. In my eyes, the majority of restaurants have not shifted their focus online.  It’s slowly happening, but not yet…

I’m not sure I agree with that, it really seems like getting a page out there is part of every restaurant start up. It’s the execution of their online plan that I take umbrage with.

I always cringe a little inside when I visit a restaurant’s web site for the first time. While I understand many of the concepts and ideas that go into creating a restaurant site – they are selling an image – I often look at the execution and just wonder if they really think they are putting their best foot forward? How does a Flash intensive site help you convey your message? Why do I need a customizable soundtrack? A web site is an extension of a person or a business; it rarely is a creature unto itself.  Doing the right things in the right way has to be more valuable to a business owner in the long run than a flashy site that at is core is really brochure-ware.

There is a segment of the population that wants information and some basic functionality; menu, directions, reservations. Then there is this growing group of people who want to be connected to the food that they eat. Where is it raised or grown? How was it prepared? Who is behind the scenes? I find detail like this much more valuable than a soundtrack that I always shut off anyway. You should not have lower the bar to sell both the sizzle (the image) and the steak (useful content).

Now add sites like Twitter and Facebook into the mix and the issue gets worse, not better in my opinion. These tools are all about building a community and a relationship, but so many times they are used to blast a sales pitch. It’s a turnoff. Again, there is a way to leverage these tools to tell your story. It’s ok to tell me about your special on Twitter, but it’s not ok to tell me a dozen times a day. I think it would be more effective to talk about being at the farmers market and finding some fantastic ingredient that will be used in a dish tonight. When you start using the tools a bit differently; it results in more business for your place. Done right, you are doing less fishing and are generating more organic growth for your business.

4.  Do you think restaurants should pay more attention to food bloggers?  Why or why not?

I think that restaurants and food bloggers have a complex relationship. Food bloggers can provide a feedback loop for sure because in addition to being into a topic – so into it that they actually sit down and write about it – they are also customers.

At the same time, I think someone who writes about food needs to understand that their words have meaning and that they are not just yelling into the vacuum that is internet.  I’ve gotten emails from the owners of businesses that I comment about, especially when I comment on an issue that I had. Each time that happens I am reminded that I’ve moved out of the realm of just having an opinion to actually publishing it. I’m not just telling a few friends about an experience I had, I’m potentially telling thousands of people. I think it changes the game a bit, but it also makes me want to be a better writer.

5. I typically ask a comparison question here, but this I gotta know.  What is your favorite beer to enjoy a tasty burger with?

Besides one that I made myself? I would have to say an Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock. That beer would go well with a root canal, let alone a burger.