Kaie Wellman is a graphic designer/art director who created and published the first eat.shop guide for Portland, Ore., in 2003. Her inspiration for the guide was seeing the incredible number of fantastic and unique local businesses in Portland (including her husband’s and a number of close friends’) that struggled mightily to compete against the national chains. She decided a “point-of-view” guide about the crème de la crème of local eating and shopping establishments could be a big boost for the little guys. And so it was. The first edition of eat.shop portland was an overnight success. Other cities came calling, and by 2005, Wellman had authored (including all research, writing and photography) guides for Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin and San Francisco.