Acknowledgments

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for your unending support and love. You are the best. Thank you to my mother-in-law, Julia MacDonnell, for helping make this happen and talking all things literary and journalistic. Thanks also to the other wonderful members of the Fischer and Chang families. Thank you to my agent Janet Rosen and to Sheree Bykofsky. Thank you to my editor at Skyhorse Publishing, Jenny Pierson, for enduring and humoring me. Thank you to my editor Daniel Maurer at Bedford + Bowery. Thank you to my former professor Brooke Kroeger at NYU and also at Bedford + Bowery. Both of you gave me a shot and I took it. And thank you, New York magazine.

I called in a million favors to make this book a reality, and everybody answered the call except one person; oh well, I wish you the best. Thank you to all the amazing photographers who worked for cheap because they believed in my idea and me. Thank you, Nicole Disser, Phil Provencio, Nina Westervelt, Calli Higgins, and Caitlin McGarry. Thank you, Brendan Leach, for the killer illustrations and map. Thank you, Joyce Lin, for swooping in and designing the shit out of this thing. Thank you, John Wha and Darwin Tomlinson, for answering my cries for help. Thank you, Robert Beach, for making me sound smarter than I am. Thank you, Miguel Sabogal, fastest transcriber in Brooklyn (probably).

Thank you to my loyal friends Jonathan Mahalak and Telly Koosis, always willing to read, talk through shit, or just listen to me freak out.

Thank you to all the establishments that accommodated these interviews.

Thank you to all the regulars I talked with for this book and for the blog. I am honored to have met you.

And finally, thank you to my smart and sweet Suzanne. After all this, you deserve a medal. I love you. And I love living life with you.