Savory Cities Archive

This week on nextNYers, host Courtney Nichols sits down with NY-based Savory Cities founders Jennifer McBride and husband Chris McBride. Savory Cities was one of our first interviews on CN and back then they used MediaWiki — looks like today it’s a robust PHP solution which is MUCH stronger to me than the MediaWiki implementation.

Savory Cities provides a chef focused online video restaurant guide. The restaurants listed in SC are the ones that give you multiple forks, not the kind that you open a ketchup packet with your teeth. Currently the service is available in NYC with San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle coming soon.

Don’t forget to check out all of the previous nextNYers episodes along with our review of online video in NYC.

About a week ago, Chris McBride from Savory posted a comment on CenterNetworks. I checked out Savory and thought it was a very interesting use of the Wiki platform. While in NYC, I met with Chris and Jennifer from Savory at their office near NYU. This husband and wife team have created a very rich, interactive experience when looking for a great place to eat at in NYC or San Francisco (more cities to come). I consider what they are doing from a video perspective a “purple cow.”

Highlights of our discussion include:

• Background on Savory, where it comes from
• Current list of cities and what’s next — Chicago is launching by end-of-year
• Monetization plan
• Are there listing fees?
• Funding model (self-funded)
• Comparisons to traditional guides like Zagat, why is Savory different
• User statistics – local vs. tourists
• Savory marketing plan overview
• Why wiki?
• What’s the process behind creating the videos?
• Mobile thoughts…
• Where are my NYC diners!
• Discussion of NYC as a whole not just Manhattan
• Reviews by site visitors
• Newsletter/blog details – SavoryTidbits

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I must admit, I am hooked on the burgers at Goodburger on 43rd and 2nd. Worth the trip to the east side for a burger and fries for $6. One of the best burgers I have ever eaten and affordable too!