Startup Review: Foodist Colony - Create Your Own Restaurant Guide

NY-based Foodist Colony is a service that lets you setup your own restaurant guide and/or interact with the community who have setup their own. Think of it as a personal Yelp that you can customize to show off the restaurants you like around the city. The site has been around for two years and currently serves only the NYC metro area.

When you signup for an account on Foodist, you are presented with three choices: create a premade site with one of their starter kits, build your own restaurant guide or just enter the site and add your selections later on. Here is the demo guide I setup -- note that I just picked some pizzerias, these are not my favorites :).

Here's an example restaurant page which might actually be better than Yelp. I like the "I've been there" option which lets you keep track of where you have eaten.

There are widgets, an iPhone/Touch version, mini-social network and lots of cross-promotion from other members. I'd like to see Facebook and Twitter integration. And what about a tie into Savory Cities to include video overviews? And of course where is the news/activity feed? Lastly, tie in GoMobo (our coverage) for takeout ordering directly.

This is a direct competitor for recently-launched Bricabox (our coverage). Bricabox has more technical options but requires you to enter the content from scratch. With Foodist Colony, the content is already there as a starting point, what a brilliant idea. Both services could learn something from the other.

In my testing over the past couple of days, I am very impressed by how slick the app is. It has enough Ajaxy-goodness but not an amount that's overwhelming. The responses from the system are quick and the information is well presented. What I don't see is any advertising or costs to be a member, so I am not sure how they monetize the app. I have a message into the team and will report back.