It’s been awhile hasn’t it…have you missed me? Because I’ve certainly missed you. All creepyness aside, I have been slacking off big time on updating this but that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it. Every time I tried some new and amazing restaurant or found an awesome deal online or failed miserably at a new recipe I’ve thought about blogging about it, but alas I am a master procrastinator and those posts just weren’t going to write themselves. But it’s the thought that counts, right?
Anyway, I’m back with a new goal - a new post everyday! Yes, that’s right, everyday from today till 2011 I will force myself to write something new and will hopefully have some help from friends along the way. The restaurant idea is officially dead, both my mom and I are too scurred to take the risk into such a venture so its on hold – indefinitely.
But in the meantime I will continue to share my adventures in foodland with you all. It seems like lately I’ve been frequenting Gyenari, a Korean BBQ spot in Culver City more and more. How can I not? It has awesome marketing in place and has offers to lure people in. Gone are the days of menus attached to doorknobs and bulk coupons from neighboring restuarants stuffed into mailboxes. Nowadays its all about gaining exposure through yelp reviews, facebook pages, twitter alerts and other online sites catered towards brining the foodies to the food.
Two of my favorites are Opentable and Foursqure. Opentable lets you reserve tables at a variety of restaurants near you or at a particular place of your choosing. Each time you reserve and dine, you earn points which can be redeemed for gift certificates towards meals at any of the restaurants. It’s a win win situation for people that love to eat out and it’s so simple:
Step 1. Reserve a table
Step 2. Eat and collect points
Step 3. Redeem points for gift certificates at resturants
Step 4. Lather, rinse and repeat as often as desired
It’s a delicious and vicious cycle, I know.
The Foursquare App lets you check into places from your current location, anything from grocery stores, coffee stores to restaurants. The more places you check into, the more badges you discover. If you frequent places more than others, you become the mayor of said place and can receive special offers like ‘free cocktail’ or ‘half off appetizers’ reserved for the mayor only! There are also special offers just for checking in sometimes.
I had a wide array of places to choose from for dinner in downtown Culver but opted for Gyenari because it was offering 1,000 points table reservation (the usual is 100 points per reservation) and since it was my 3rd check in on Foursquare I earned myself a free cocktail. Woot.
Have you guys used any of these before? Are there others I should know about?
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I enjoy foursquare, it turns ordinary journeys into a bit of a game and the rewards for check-ins and mayors are awesome. Never used open table before, I usually make my online table reservation with bookatable, they also have an awesome iphone app for their booking system. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways, the idea of points for eating out sounds like a good idea though.
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