Well, look how far we’ve come! This issue marks the 52nd issue of our 10th year of The Cuenca Dispatch.

I’ve told this story before, but the newspaper actually started as a way to entertain our customers—maybe bring a smile to their faces while they waited to be served at our restaurant, The Vegetable Bar.

Hence, the original name: The Vegetable dis-Patch. I thought it was a funny play on words then, and I still do!

To celebrate this milestone, we’re going to reprint that very first issue of The Vegetable dis-Patch in this week’s edition.

You’ll notice that the first issue was published on May 30, 2016, which means we technically should have celebrated our 10th anniversary five months ago. But let’s just say we weren’t quite so particular about publishing every single week back then! Throw in COVID, restaurant closures, and the sale of the newspaper, and, well… here we are!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy flipping through this little piece of history as much as I did. I have to say, it seems my column from back then still holds up pretty well today!

Just sayin’.