Popular author and food writer Jesse Blanco, the founder of Eat It and Like It and Eat It Florida, will speak at the Books & Books flagship location in Coral Gables, Fla., on Monday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. as part of “An Evening With Jesse Blanco.” This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are recommended and are available by visiting booksandbooks.com.

A full-time food writer with an insatiable desire to travel, eat and explore, Blanco is the acclaimed author of Savannah Food Crawls and Charleston Food Crawls. His 24-year career in TV news – coupled with his large Cuban family’s influence in Miami – has given him the ability to connect with viewers and readers through food.

Blanco grew up in Coconut Grove, graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1987 and earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Central Florida in 1994 before launching a successful 24-year career as a television news anchor, reporter and sportscaster. Over the years, he has covered a wide range of news stories in Nashville, Tenn.; El Paso, Tex.; and Savannah, Ga., where he currently resides with his wife, Sheila.

In 2010, Blanco launched a popular blog – and later an award-winning television show – called Eat It and Like It, which was originally dedicated to exploring the underappreciated side of Savannah’s food scene. He has since expanded Eat and It and Like It to include cities and towns across the Southeast and is currently launching Eat It Florida, which is focused on celebrating exceptional food and drink across the Sunshine State.

Blanco published Savannah Food Crawls: Touring the Neighborhoods One Bite and Libation at a Time in 2023 and Charleston Food Crawls: Touring the Neighborhoods One Bite and Libation at a Time in 2024. Both books offer exciting culinary tours of the South’s most acclaimed cities, each of which has a vibrant, buzzworthy food scene. In each book, this larger-than-life food writer eagerly invites readers to dig into Savannah and Charleston, one dish at a time.