Welcome to The Dexterous Diner! If you’re here you’re either tight on cash or you like a good laugh. Either way you’ve come to the right place.
The Short:
Blonde, over 30, chronically single, perpetually broke, foodie, loves foi gras – can’t afford it, typical youngest child, eternal optimist.
The Long:
My name is Christine Ann. I grew up in your typical nuclear family in an incredibly barren rural suburb of New Jersey where we tipped cows for fun. I’m a seasoned traveler which created my love of food, more specifically good food; some people call it being a food snob, I call it knowing what you like. I’ve worked in Marketing and Communications for over eight years, but it was my brief but serendipitous stint as a brand strategist and media relations manager for an international ceramics company that re-ignited my passion for writing and food.
The Dexterous Diner was born in my post college years as a way to share my dining tips with the other financially challenged foodies of the world. Like many other 20 somethings, I found myself to be fiscally handicapped with a problematic tendency towards the finer things in life. Armed with a shiny new degree and delusional hopes of grandeur instilled in most of my generation, I quickly realized that the real world is not so rosy.
Inevitably, my financial situation , or lack there of, left me in a bit of a predicament. My former love of the “finer things in life” had become more of a love of the things I can’t afford. Faced with question, how can I eat what I love without breaking my very small bank, I began the arduous endeavor of exploring affordable dining options, trying everything short of early bird specials.
After years of creatively navigating the restaurant scene, I have honed my skills as a “experienced eater”, traveling around eating at some of the best restaurants and spending as little as possible. My dollars have stretched through several states and time zones from California to Paris. It is my hope that any one who reads this blog will gain the tools to become a master of frugal fine dining or as I like to call it”champagne dining on a beer budget, or at least a find a new spot to get a good meal.
