Who are we? Why do we do what we do?
Meet your Admin/Mod Team
Click on each picture to learn more about the fine folks at Jacksonville Fun, Eats & Drinks!
Let's start here: if you haven't joined the Jacksonville Fun, Eats & Drinks Facebook group, now is a great time to do that!
Lauren & Russ get asked a lot of questions so we thought we'd share some information for anyone interested. One thing we want to make clear is that we do not think of ourselves as "foodies", "influencers", "digital creators" or anything along those lines. We're honored that some folks think of us that way, but we don't want to come off as thinking we should have any more influence over where people go than anyone else does. Having said that, we totally understand why many people would ask a lot of questions like: Just who are these people? Why do they eat out all the time, do they ever eat at home? How do they decide where to go? Why do they only share (mostly) positive reviews/experiences? Do they get paid for this? How do they afford to eat out all of the time? Why did they start their own Facebook group? Are they content creators? Are they bothered by haters or imitators? Why do they do what they do? What's with the shirts? Why not just make "10" louder?
You will get answers to MOST of those questions here!
Just Who Are These People?
Lauren Robinson & Russ Robinson are two Jacksonville residents originally brought here from the north at different times in their lives. Lauren moved to Jacksonville in December of 2013. Russ moved to Jacksonville far more recently having relocated from the north in April of 2022.
Why Do They Eat Out All The Time, Do They Ever Eat At Home?
That's kind of a funny one, actually. Most weeks, we eat at home Sunday night through Friday afternoon. That means that we usually eat out for dinner on Fridays, then breakfast (or brunch) or lunch or Saturdays and dinner out on Saturdays. Then we usually do a brunch out on Sundays followed by a late lunch or early dinner out. One of our group Admins did the math, so here's how that breaks down: there are 7 days each week with 3 meals each day. So that's 21 meals each week. The most we eat out each week between Friday & Sunday is 6 meals, which leaves 15 meals. So yes, we eat the greater majority of our meals at home!
How Do They Decide Where To Go?
This will tie into another question we get a lot but the answer is so much simpler than most people would think. The two of us work from home, so most or all of our weekend plans come from casual conversation throughout the week. If you ever see us at a new business (restaurant or otherwise), I assure you it's because it's somewhere we are interested in and not somewhere we're trying to be seen. We have had a few local businesses reach out to say they'd like for us to come by and we've gone when we're able but again, we only go places that genuinely interest us. We don't anywhere in Jacksonville for any reason other than we hope to have an experience that we will enjoy.
Why Do They Only Share (mostly) Positive Reviews/Experiences?
The answer to this one a bit layered. First and foremost, we DO have bad experiences now and again. However, we believe in a few things that guide our lives and complaining on the internet isn't one of them. When we have a bad experience, we do our best to handle it on the spot with whatever business it occurred at. In the event that we end up disappointed, we keep it between us, the business where it occurred and maybe a few friends in private discussions. Russ has two sayings he uses a lot with regard to local businesses. One is "never make it hard for me to give you money" and the other is "vote with your wallet". If the first thing happens to us for whatever reason, we just exercise the second one then we support other local businesses. For us, it's important to share those positive experiences because that's part of building up local businesses and just as much a part of "voting with your wallet" as not returning to a place that disappointed us is. Another thing about us is that we don't go into any particular situation looking for something to complain about. We don't just assume everything is amazing but we also don't go in thinking there will be any reason for us to be mad.
Do They Get Paid For This?
In short, NOPE. Some folks seem to believe otherwise and there's nothing we can do about that. We have never taken any payment from local businesses to visit them, post about them, write a positive review, promote a special, take a picture there, etc etc. If at some point in the future anything about that ever changes, we will be 100% honest about it. That is NOT in our plan but if something like that were to occur, being honest about it would be the most important part of it for us. There will be more on this topic in another answer below.
How Do They Afford To Eat Out / Have Fun All Of The Time?
We're kind of surprised at how many people feel comfortable asking about our personal finances in a public forum. Which is why we're comfortable with this short answer: that's none of your business. However, because we're who we are we'll give a slightly longer answer: we both work very hard to enjoy the things we enjoy in life.
Why Did They Start Their Own Facebook Group?
To be honest, we didn't want to. Over the course of a couple of years, a few things piled up that caused us to finally take a shot at it. The first was that we wished there was a Facebook group to share more than just the restaurants around Jacksonville. What about all the awesome parks, breweries, arcades, local markets, artists, musicians and more? There's SO much fun going on around Jacksonville every single day. Creating a place to share all of that was the main driving force that was nagging at us to start a group of our own. The second thing was the large amount of very kind people on other Facebook groups who would reply to Russ' posts with kind words asking us to start our own group. Many, many people kept asking over the course of several years and that meant a lot to us. Running a social media community is a LOT of work to begin with. On top of that, attempting to run a social media community that focuses on positivity is an almost impossible task. We don't think we're going to do this better than anyone else. We're just trying to do OUR version of it is all and we're hoping it works out great for everyone who wants to be positive about all the fun, eats & drinks in Jacksonville.
Are They "Content Creators"?
Not really. When we think of "content creators" or "influencers" we think of people who have FAR more hustle than we do, if we're being honest. Lauren & Russ have a YouTube channel together that focuses on tons of different music. It's called Infectious Groove Music and it's very active. The channel has 3 new videos every week ranging from vinyl record reviews, to music discussion topics we love to music video reactions. Russ had a weekly audio podcast about music for many years called Infectious Groove Podcast. In many ways, that podcast was a dream come true for Russ. He got to interview some music legends from some of his all time favorite bands. He interviewed members of Pink Floyd and The Black Crowes. He spoke at length about the late King Of Pop Michael Jackson with Michael's nephew Taj Jackson as well. He also spoke to members of Journey, Chicago and so many more. All of the episodes are still available on all streaming platforms but the podcast ran it's course so he hasn't produced new episodes in many years. Lauren has a weekly audio podcast that is still very much active. Her podcast is called Beer'd Al Podcast and (you guessed it) it's focused on beer and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Yes, Weird Al does know who Lauren is and she's met him many times, as has Russ. "Weird Al" has heard Lauren's podcast and told her personally that he loves it. You can find her podcast and subscribe on whatever audio service you use.
So why don't we think of ourselves are "content creators"? Because we don't do any of this to make money or to be known, etc. We have never cross promoted any of these things because our motivations are to do them because we love them and not for any other reason.
Why Do They Do What They Do?
Soon after Russ moved to Jacksonville 3 years ago, Lauren & Russ started completing the Jax Ale Trail together. We would map out our weekend by grouping breweries together we wanted to visit that day. So we started to kick around social media and ask things like "If we're going to be out in <random area> today, where's a good Mexican restuarant for lunch?" or "Hey, we're going to be over near <brewery name> tonight, who has good pizza over that way?". More often than not, the answer we'd get back from social media was "Jacksonville doesn't have that" or "There is no good <food type> here in Jacksonville". To be honest, we were like "Well, all of that negativity just can't be true". So we just started trying places at random. As we mentioned before, we did have some bad experiences but we ended up having WAY more good experiences than bad. So we started sharing them. The more we shared them, the more people interacted with us. The more people interacted with us, the more we wanted to go find great things to share. For us, it's been the most rewarding experience of turning lemons into lemonade.
Are They Bothered By Haters Or Imitators?
"Haters Gon' Hate", right? We're not sure if "bothered by" is the right way to put it but we're certainly confused by it. We're the type of people that just don't put any thought or effort into the the things we don't like. So for anyone to spend any amount of time, energy or thought on disliking us is a foreign idea. Regarding imitators, we keep a couple of things in mind: one is that our main goal was/is to spread positivity. So when we see smiling faces in reviews or people sharing more positive experiences, we love it! One of the things we've always been known for is how in depth our reviews are. So it does make is smile a little bit when we see a few reviews out there that are obviously enhanced by AI to make them more wordy. Russ writes 100% of our reviews on his own and uses 0% AI tools when he writes. He's a "quality over quantity" type of guy, so it's not about making a review longer or more flashy, it's about making sure there's value for the person reading it.
What's With The Shirts?
How we got into the shirts is a funny story for another post but the short version is, we just love them. Nearly every shirt you see both of us wear is from a brand called RSVLTS. We have absolutely no affiliation with them, we just genuinely love their clothing.
Why Not Just Make "10" Louder?
....these go to 11.
If you've ever wondered about any of these things, we hope this article helped. If you ever have further questions for either of us, you are always welcome to tag either of us in the Jacksonville Fun, Eats & Drinks Facebook group.