Meet Alyson and Jason Baer, rising stars on Eagle 103.7 radio in Flagstaff. You may know their names, but they don’t want to reveal their faces, because as Hottie and The Fatso, they do weekly podcasts reviewing restaurants in the area.

“It is important for us to walk into a restaurant and not be treated differently,” Alyson said. “We just want to give people an honest evaluation.”

They are serious about remaining anonymous. On the radio station’s website, their faces are covered with wine glasses and with menus on their blog and podcasts.

“We have been sort of food and wine people for a long time,” Jason said. “When we moved to Flagstaff we recognized relatively quickly that there were really a significant number of restaurants in town, but they were not chronicled.”

He said visitors and locals seemed to go to the same places every time.

“This is an opportunity for people to know what is really here, “he said. “While we don’t take ourselves too seriously, at the same time we try to provide legitimate information. It is not all fun and games,” he said.

One of the missions for the couple is to encourage people to try other restaurants in the area instead of going to the same places every time.

“A lot of people do that and it just drives me crazy,” he said.

For instance, there are five sushi restaurants in Flagstaff and the twists on Italian and Mexican food are endless at the various restaurants that serve that fare.

“Life is too short to go to the same restaurant every time,” he said.

And they enjoy doing the reviews.

“It’s fun. It’s something Alyson and I can do together. We meet a lot of great people and restaurant owners and while it is a lot tongue-in-cheek, we are serious. We visit each place twice, once for lunch and once for dinner,” he said.

They got their current gig when they heard the general manager at the radio station wanted to make the format livelier by offering restaurant reviews with a podcast and a blog. The couple got the nod.

They went to work trying to figure out names for their alter egos. They decided on Hottie and The Fatso

“A friend of ours coined it,” Alyson said. “My husband loved it and it stuck.”
Since, they have earned steady followers.

“They are terrific,” said Paul Lancaster, general manager of the radio station “They are friendly and smart and they are goofy and they love to eat and they are very easy to work with.”

He said they fit perfectly into the philosophy of the 1-year-old radio station that plays quality adult rock.

“They are a fun couple, we are a fun radio station and we have a fun website,” he said.
Although, they have been doing their podcast for about six months, they were not sure how many people were listening, but there was apparently enough to attract interest from the Flagstaff News.

“They have an online video section each week. They said, ‘we are so excited about having you. Everyone in town is talking about you,’” she said. “We were really surprised.”

They will of course wear disguises for the interview.

The Fatso will wear a polar bear mask and Hottie a witch’s hat with orange braids and sunglasses, she said.

They recently appeared live on EAGLE’s morning show for the first time, which she says will continue “once in a while.”

While they try to remain positive with their reviews, they have given one bad one. This particular restaurant went out of business shortly after the review, but it was on its way out anyway, she said.

“The food was not good at all. I gave suggestions of how they could improve,” she said.

Jason and Alyson met when they were both political science majors at the University of Arizona in Flagstaff.

Hottie and the Fatso reviews are available at www.eagle1037.fm