Meet Dominic Brown

For many, the summer of 2022 included long-overdue vacations, flights, and trips. 多米尼克·布朗(Dominic Brown)对再次旅行尤为兴奋, award-winning food blogger, Reynolds alum, and founder of TallTravelEats. He's recently been published in Fodor's Travels. Voices of Reynolds caught up with Dom as he was cooling his jets in Richmond, 这是一个你不想错过的有趣的谈话!

Listen to the podcast, Voices of Reynolds, here, or read the transcript below.

Reynolds: Welcome to Voices of Reynolds, 我是玛丽安·麦吉beta365大学的校友之所以特别有很多原因, we know that. 一是我们通常在里士满安家. 绝大多数beta365学生将在该地区生活和工作. 这并不意味着他们不去观察和探索这个世界. With me today is Dominic Brown, founder of TallTravelEats brand and marketing. 多米尼克，欢迎你非常感谢你的到来.

Dominic: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Reynolds: You are tall! You ended up with an actual award-winning social media feed so let's first talk a little bit about what TallTravelEats is about.

DominicTallTravelEats是我创建的一个品牌，旨在激励人们去旅行. 这就是它的原型，因为我来自里士满的内城, so I really wanted to showcase my travel and showcase everything that's out in the world for people to see. I created a brand, TallTravelEats.

Reynolds: It's a fascinating story because your collegiate career began when you were picked up to play basketball. 你获得了打篮球的奖学金. Is that right?

Dominic是的，加州索诺拉的大专篮球队.

Reynolds所以，你离开里士满去了加利福尼亚? 你是怎么回到这里来的，还迷上了旅行的?

Dominic: Well, after two years of junior college basketball I end up breaking my ankle. 当我摔断脚踝时，我想:“接下来我该怎么办??” I hadn't completed my degree. So one thing I wanted to do was make sure I finished my associate’s degree. 所以，来到beta365，住在里士满，这对我来说是有意义的. 所以，我来到这里，把学分转过去，一切都解决了.

I had an amazing experience. The sense of community. 老师们都很亲力亲为，还有工作人员. 当我需要说话什么的时候. 如果我对四年制大学有任何疑问，他们会让我知道. That was very important in my progress of going on to a four-year school and building my brand. That was very important.

我想我的第一次大旅行是去加利福尼亚和上学. Sonora, California is one of the closest cities to Yosemite National Park. And that's so beautiful. 我只是惊讶于这风景的美丽. 我就想，“伙计，世界上还有什么别的?” That's the first big trip that really inspired me to start TallTravelEats and see what else is out there.

Reynolds那么让我们来谈谈“吃”这个词是从哪里来的. 因为我们知道“高大”和“旅行”是怎么来的. 告诉我们TallTravelEats是如何发展的.

Dominic: The Eats came into play because I was looking for new foods to try when I travel. 当大流行发生时，我不能再旅行了. I did have to cancel all my international travel and all my domestic travel. 有一天我坐在家里，我说, “I need to rebrand it because I'm not going to be traveling with the pandemic.” I was looking at the news one day and they said a lot of their restaurants were closing due to COVID. So, I asked myself, how could I help? 我该如何利用我的品牌来帮助餐厅关闭?

我所做的就是走出去，重点介绍那里最好的菜. I was filming me doing takeout -– because a lot of people didn't know what restaurants were open and how the process worked. So, I did that, and it ended up becoming real popular with the food crowd. The media kept picking it up. 这就是“食物”与这个品牌的关系.

Reynolds各位，你们需要访问Dom的Instagram页面! You know the thing Dom, is whether you have an image of something in a Styrofoam container or on a fabulous plate. It just looks delicious!

Dominic: Thank you!

Reynolds我的意思是你会做些什么让食物看起来更美味吗? 怎么视频里的一切都这么好?

Dominic: There are some tricks I’ve learned over time with angles and different things. 但我不能把我所有的秘密都说出来. 但是，没错，它确实有一个talltraveleat.com的故事.

Reynolds你的Instagram被《beta365》杂志授予了荣誉. 人们开始知道你是谁了吗? 我想如果你是美食评论家的话, it would be hard for you to be anonymous after a while because you're such a tall guy. Are people starting to know? “I think that's Dom Brown.”

Dominic: Yes, it’s surprising because every time I go to a restaurant, I go get a smoothie. People are double-checking me. Like, “I think that's TallTravelEats.” So, they all look. 我还没反应过来，他们就走过来对我说:“这里是TallTravelEats!”

But a story that made me start TallTravelEats was based off a trip to New York where my brother played in a basketball tournament. 这是在我创立TallTravelEats之前. I was in New York, looking at a basketball game and a lot of people were staring at me. 我在想，“为什么这些人盯着我看?” At halftime they made their way over to me and they said, “Are you Dom Brown?” andI said, “Yeah that's me.他们说:“我们关注了你所有的美食评论，很高兴见到你。. We love everything you do.” That just caught me by storm. That happened in 2015, so that's when I started this brainstorming to get the brand going which was started in 2017.

Reynolds: That's incredible! 所以，你不知道你开始吸收这种蒸汽?

Dominic: I had no idea. 我只是在写我喜欢的食物的评论, places I liked, cities I went to, and different things of that nature.

Reynolds: You've been to quite a number of places, if I'm understanding this correctly. 37个州，阿鲁巴岛，英国，荷兰，加拿大. 冷却你的喷气机是什么感觉，多姆? The pandemic has really interrupted the way people travel and think about traveling. 你是怎么过的，一直都得住在本地?

Dominic: It was tough because right before the pandemic hit, I was on my way to Paris. 疫情在我旅行前两周爆发，所以我不得不取消行程. 几个月后我要去意大利的罗马. I had to cancel a lot of things. But I looked at it as a blessing because I was able to concentrate on the food things with TallTravelEats and help the community. 帮助餐馆保持营业，帮助推销他们的食物. 所以这是一份礼物，也是一种诅咒——由此产生的有好有坏.

You're absolutely right! We have so many fantastic local establishments – some of them are our own fabulous culinary arts grads from The Kitchens at Reynolds. In our program. 我们当然想支持他们!

Reynolds我喜欢看你的动态，还有一条Instagram帖子.… You're just standing on the beach. 这是加勒比海，我们其余的人在里士满都快冻死了. At the time you were doing that, did the flamingo just casually stroll by you? Do you have a lot of moments like this when something unexpected or funny happens when you’re traveling?

Dominic: Before I go to a city, I look at what I want to do and bookmark everything. 那是我在阿鲁巴真正想做的一件事. 但我很惊讶火烈鸟飞得这么近! I had to capture that moment. One thing I plan on doing with TallTravelEats this year is focus my travel on seeing things like flamingos, certain restaurants, 把它们放到我的网站上，这样人们就可以看到了. When they go to Aruba on certain trips, they can experience these things I'm experiencing. I want to inspire.

Reynolds: You have inspired me, Dom. I must ask you some advice. 我们有一些学生要应付很多事情. 努力弄清楚钱，家庭责任，学业. They're juggling a lot. 有些人可能以前没有坐过飞机. 如果你不是在旅行中长大的，你是如何开始的呢? How do you get started? 第一次旅行的第一步是什么?

Dominic我想你把这个想法看得太小了, like take little minor trips like, well, something like to Chicago. Or go to New York. 需要坐一到两个小时飞机的地方. Get a short flight under your belt before you go somewhere like London — seven hours or Australia — 15 hours. 在我看来，从小处开始，然后逐步发展. Also, do your research. It can become pricey, so just do your research before you start to build up to the big trips.

Reynolds: Dom, I’m laughing because he said, “Oh take a small trip, you know like, to Chicago.” I mean I thought you were going to say, “Go to Fredericksburg for the day. You know, have lunch on a patio.” But Dom says, go to Chicago. Hang out for a week.”

多姆，你的美食故事鼓舞了很多人. But how about your personal stories? Are people connecting with you just because of who you are and your story of coming from the inner city of Richmond and branching out and living like this?

Dominic: I think my story is relatable because I was just a regular guy growing up with humble beginnings and able to start this brand. 所以，当他们看到我现在的位置时，他们会受到鼓舞. 有些人做的事情你可能觉得遥不可及. But I feel that with TallTravelEats, it is such a relatable brand because I built it from nothing. No money behind me. I put my own money up. 我想，当人们看到这些并受到启发时. 他们想做一些事情，比如旅行，或者其他的梦想. 你得好好利用这一点.

Reynolds我告诉你还有谁注意到了——VCU! Because you, like a lot of our Reynolds students, made kind of a Reynolds-to-Ram transition. VCU selected you for quite an honor. 入选VCU 10 under 10是什么感觉?

Dominic: It was a humbling experience. 当我接到电话时，我非常震惊和惊讶. It’s such a humbling experience because only 10 alumni win that award each year. So, to have my name, coming from humble beginnings, to get that award, just meant a lot to me. Once again, I just hope people see my story and are inspired by it — that you can do whatever you put your mind to.

Reynoldsbeta365为你感到骄傲，很高兴我们能见到你. You certainly have inspired us. 我们有很棒的校友在做各种令人兴奋的事情, but it has been especially fun to follow the antics and the food adventures of TallTravelEats.

多姆，非常感谢你来参加beta365之声. You are such an inspirational story! If you want a delicious scroll, a visual feast, make sure you check out Dom! 关注多姆的所有平台，包括他的网站， TallTravelEats.com. 

我们要感谢你们参加我们的活动 Voices of Reynolds as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. We'll catch you next time!