Cool and Useful Apps for New York Restaurant Week

By Amy Vale

An eMarketer report, “MobileFast Food Marketing: How QSRs and Fast Casuals Are

Getting Quicker and Faster,” stated that forty-four percent of consumers who eat fast food at least monthly, owned smartphones in the last quarter of 2011, according to food service research firm Sandelman & Associates. That’s 14 percentage points higher than eMarketer’s estimate of overall smartphone ownership for the same period. Clearly, mobile devices and food go hand-in-hand – whether it’s using your mobile device to download and use restaurant locator apps, using mobile coupons or place an order.

With the kick-off of RestaurantWeek last week, it’s likely that a lot of New Yorkers will be downloading and utilizing a variety of apps to help them locate participating restaurants, find mobile deals and coupons, book reservations and much more. Whether you plan to venture out to one of the thousands of restaurants participating in New York Restaurant Week 2013, or you’re looking for an easy, but delicious recipe to cook at home, here’s a few cool food-themed apps that won’t just improve your dining experience overall, but are doing some cool things to monetize for app developers.

Food Network’s “On The Road” App

The Food Network is a household name around the world as the ultimate place to go for top recipes and cooking tips. Last year, the food destination decided it was time to go head-to-head with other restaurant-discovery services by launching its own app. With its “On The Road” app, foodies can find eateries featured in the channel’s TV programming or recommended by its renowned chefs such as Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. As beautiful and user-friendly as the iPhone and iPad app is, it’s also a best case example of how an app can be both useful for consumers and generate revenue for app developers. One of the best things about this app, from a mobile perspective, is that it does an excellent job of extending the brand’s programming and content across multiple platforms (TV, online, and mobile).

BuzzTable App

BuzzTable, a startup which graduated from the ERAccelerator last year, has two apps that benefit both diners and restaurant merchants with a built-in mobile loyalty program. Users can send feedback, sign up for rewards, and check out trending dishes as sourced from OpenTable, Yelp, Foursquare, etc. Plus, they can add themselves to a wait list virtually before arriving. Meanwhile, participating restaurants can use a companion app called WaitList+ to check in guests, communicate with customers during busy periods, and get customer feedback after their dining experience. Instead of calling out names or using handheld buzzers that force guests to wait around the restaurant, guests can be contacted on their phones and feel free to spend their wait time more productively.

BuzzTable is an excellent example of an app that monetizes by charging restaurants a set SaaS platform fee (starting at $49/month) to manage their guests via the mobile app or wait list app. The app works with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android devices.

Nara Mobile App

Nara Mobile takes your culinary interests and tastes and creates a personalized restaurant search just for you. You simply input your favorite types of food, restaurants, and activities, and then choose from one of the 25 supported cities. The app even helps you choose new restaurants when you travel, based on your hometown favorites. You can choose from the suggestions and find menus and reviews from FourSquare. After you have eaten at one of the suggestions, give it a thumbs up or down so Nara can keep track of your interests and continue to personalize your results. Think Pandora or Netflix, but for restaurants.

According to Nara Mobile Founder and CTO, TomCopeman, the app isn’t motivated by sponsored search or targeted ads. Instead, they plan to monetize through affiliate booking partners and via other channels. It’ll be interesting to see just how they monetize the app in the next year.