Once upon a time, salad was iceberg lettuce with a few shredded carrots and a cucumber slice, if you were lucky. A vegetable side was potatoes--would you like those baked, mashed, or au gratin? A nice anniversary dinner? Would you rather visit the Holiday Inn or the Regency Inn? In Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small town where professors moonlight as farmers, farmers moonlight as football coaches, and everyone loves hockey, one woman has had the answers for more than twenty-five years: Marilyn Hagerty. In her weekly Eatbeat column in the local paper, Marilyn gives the denizens of Grand Forks the straight scoop on everything from the best blue plate specials--beef stroganoff at the Pantry--to the choicest truck stops--the Big Sioux (and its lutefisk lunch special)--to the ambience of the town's first Taco Bell. Her verdict? "A cool pastel oasis on a hot day."

No-nonsense but wry, earnest but self-aware, Eatbeat also encourages the best in its readers--reminding...