Bloomington-Normal lost a public service Friday.
Not a company, a corporation, a utility.
Larry Carius passed.
If you like food, and frankly most do, you probably ran into Larry, or at least his writings.
A guy whose foodie column appeared in this paper and a regular on radio at WJBC and WGLT, his food "blog" that appeared on Facebook -- "Bloomington-Normal Restaurant Scene" -- was his special specialty.
And it was popular.
Hugely.
Who else do you know who had (not a typo) 43,000 followers of his almost daily social-media posts -- what restaurant is coming to town, who's doing it, what can you expect?
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Larry didn't get paid to do it.
He just did it because he loved doing it.
He was a public service, free of charge because it obviously gave him a charge.
If ever there is a definition of passion for something, Larry also was it.
Originally from Washington, the Tazewell County city, he worked for the McLean County Health Department for 40 years. As a food program and plan review supervisor, he inspected food serving establishments to help prevent food borne illnesses.
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When he retired in 2008, you assumed he'd move on to something else, like retirement.
Instead, his passion for restauranting somehow only intensified.
When Facebook surfaced, it became his vehicle.
He'd troll town, knock on doors, make phone calls, snap his own pictures.
With help from his wife and fellow food aficionado, Kay, he'd post news, information and photos on local restaurants, pubs and taverns, to hundreds of "likes" and dozens of comments.
People forwarded his stuff endlessly.
An example was his Oct. 22 post, on Kobe, the popular Japanese restaurant, expanding into a "revolving sushi bar."
That single post got 644 "likes," 287 comments from his readers and 175 then also shared it.
It also would prove to be one of his last.
Larry subsequently had a stroke. Now in his 80s, he never recovered from it.
He leaves Kay, all his restauranting sources and friends, and his 43,000 followers.
Larry and his passion will be missed.
Chow, kind sir.
Read Larry Carius' food coverage from The Pantagraph
Larry Carius, who ran the popular Bloomington-Normal Restaurant Scene Facebook page, wrote regular columns for The Pantagraph. Here's a collec...
Flick: McLean County's 'food czar,' Larry Carius, hanging up his work fork
Editor's note: This column originally appeared in the June 19, 2009 edition of The Pantagraph.
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