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Mike Urban: Bite by Bite

Mike Urban knows the question: where’s a good place to eat. But why ask him? Because Mike writes books on restaurants.

His latest volume, his fifth, is Unique Eats and Eateries of Connecticut. One of his earlier books, Lobster Shacks: A Road Guide to New England’s Best Lobster Joints, was named one of the top 10 summer reads by Publishers Weekly and won a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.

Still, Mike’s experience answering the where-to-eat question prompts him to add a caveat to any advice he gives: Everybody’s taste is different.

His specialty is casual eateries with emphasis on New England classics like lobster rolls, deep friend clams, and donuts to die for.

“I’m an unofficial greasy spoon guy, funky places. I like ferreting things out, doing research. I’m not a haute cuisine guy,” he says. “My stock in trade is diners, seafood shacks, mom and pop places.”

Mike, who has written his books and articles from his Old Saybrook home base, doesn’t think of himself as a restaurant reviewer.

“I’m not a critic. I like talking to people, not knocking things down. I am always thinking of a positive dining experience,” he says. “If the place is not good, I probably wouldn’t write about it.”

He has occasionally written about more upscale restaurants in this area, among them Grano Arso in Chester.

“It’s so innovative; he gets grains and hand grinds them, phenomenal and it has a unique setting,” Mike says.

The restaurant is located in a structure that once was a bank, built in 1902.

Mike loves sea chanty nights at the Griswold Inn—”I like to soak in the vibes,” he says, an observation that is particularly appropriate for a musical setting. And he hopes that Essex Rotary will once again put on its annual shad bake, last year held as a virtual event because of the pandemic.

His list of other local favorites includes one market, Atlantic Seafood in Old Saybrook, as well as Bill’s Seafood in Westbrook, and the Blue Oar in Haddam.

Only once in all his restaurant experiences has he met hostility from a restaurant owner. It happened in a Maine diner. The owner thought Mike was out to steal recipes from him.

“He stonewalled me,” Mike recalls.

In addition to his books, Mike has written articles on food and where to eat it in New England for Yankee Magazine for some six years, usually four or five articles a year.

Mike grew up in Winnetka, Illinois, but initially went south for college. He started out in New Orleans at Tulane.

“That’s where I got interested in seafood, raw oysters, shrimp,” he recalls.

But the climate was his undoing. He was not used to the heat and humidity. He transferred to the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated with a double major in English and sociology.

When he started his professional career, Mike didn’t envision becoming an editor.

“I didn’t plan to go into publishing, but upon graduating, I thought it might be fun to edit other people’s work. Forty years later I can say that it was and still is,” he observes.

Most recently Mike has worked as a principal at his own book packaging company, but he has also worked in Chicago for World Book Encyclopedia, McGraw Hill and Rand McNally, the last known for its maps and atlases.

“I knew every bump in the road when I worked there,” Mike says.

He came to New England to work as vice president and associate publisher at Globe Pequot Press, then in Chester. Globe Pequot has since moved to Guilford. Mike’s wife Ellen, whom he met when working at World Book, still works at Globe Pequot. The couple has four grown children.

Mike is not bothered by the bane of many an author’s professional existence, writer’s block. He thinks that the nature of what he writes, small chunks of copy rather than a long narrative, is the reason.

He hasn’t used an agent in Unique Eats and Eateries in Connecticut or any of his other books, since that is a field in which he’s already expert. Reedy Press is the publisher of his latest book, which is available through Amazon.

Mike often cooks at home, mostly seafood and pasta dishes. Recently, he has started what he describes as “dabbling in baking,” a result of watching The Great British Baking Show.

When asked about culinary disasters in his adventures as a cook, he recalls an event many years ago when he and a roommate decided to make a roast chicken dinner. They put the chickens in a 150-degree oven at 8 in the morning and left for work. When they came home at 5:30, expecting perfectly roasted birds, they found charred carcasses. Mike never did that again.

When he is researching different restaurants, Mike can eat lunch or dinner out as often as 10 times a week. He says he has no problem eating some of those meals alone.

Nor does he have any lasting problems with gaining weight, thought he admits the pounds come and go. To keep them off, he runs or walks three miles every day.

On a busy day of gastronomic research, Mike has a method for staving off acid indigestion.

“Pace yourself; you’ve got to pace yourself,” he says. “What I eat depends on how much time I have, what I have to cover. My stomach has been very good to me.”

Well, almost always good to him. Mike remembers a three-lobster-roll day that didn’t end well. He recalls trouble finishing the lobster roll number three.

“But I did it, all in the name of research,” he says.

The Essex Library will host an author talk with Mike Urban about his latest book, Unique Eats and Eateries of Connecticut on Thursday, Nov. 4 from 7 to 8 p.m. via Zoom. To register, visit www.youressexlibrary.org.

Urban will also give an in-person talk on Tuesday, Nov. 16, from 7 to 8 p.m. at Guilford Free Library, 67 Park Street; register to attend at www.guilfordfreelibrary.org.