It doesn’t look like downloads will ever make up for the decline in CD sales, so artists now look for unique opportunities to drive non-traditional revenue. In addition to concert tickets and merchandise, many musicans create unique products and experiences for their fans. From an artist cruise to branded booze, there are many different ways to increase loyalty, grow a fan base and creatively fund the dream.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a unique pre-show event with the Zac Brown Band in Hartford, CT and I was truly blown away. Before every show Zac and Chef Rusty, the touring grill master, host a party called the ‘Eat n Greet.’ And, it’s not just hot dogs and chicken wings. I’m talking gourmet food, featuring Zac’s own line of Southern sauces and rubs (which unfortunately for us, are not available at retail yet), paired up with the official tour sponsor LandShark Lager. You can even take home the band’s Southern Ground Cookbook to make sure your chicken is fried right! Know of any other artists that host a dinner with their fans before the show?! Get a taste of what CNN has to say about the Eat n Greet here.
Do you remember the first time Amazon recommended an item that was spot on for you? The recommendation system was a major differentiator for the site in the early days and it’s still a valuable tool for finding new books, electronics and more.
I’ve been fascinated by this type of suggestion functionality, also known as collaborative filtering, and often wondered why more sites don’t use it. As we outlined in a previous post, we’re hoping to leverage a similar approach to help you decide not only where to eat, but more importantly what dish to order.
As cliché as it may be, developing a site like this poses a chicken or egg scenario. How do you get the users if you don’t have the data to fuel recommendations? A few interesting examples of how others solved this problem include Google, Pandora and now Hunch.
Hunch is a recommendation site that aims to personalize the Internet by building a personal taste profile for users. Basically Hunch works by combining a few key components:
1. Your social graph – Hunch will pull information from Facebook and Twitter if you provide access.
2. THAY (Teach Hunch About You) – The site will ask you a series of multiple choice questions that make their algorithm more intelligent.
3. Social gaming – Do we do anything without earning some form of points or status these days? Of course not! Users collect points (called banjos) and badges by providing additional information and feedback.
Recently Hunch posted a fascinating breakdown of food-related preferences based on the user data they have collected so far. They do a great job slicing and dicing the information and calling out some of the specific findings. In this case, the data they have could be extremely valuable for restaurants as they build or evolve their menus. They were even able to provide some validation for Burger King’s recent decision to test beer in a few locations.
Check out the study and try answering a few THAY questions to see how relevant the recommendations are. Also, let us know if you find any other unique recommendation engines that we should check out.
Image showing the correlation between french fry and beer preferences - from "A Network of Food Preferences" by Hunch.
Today we’re excited to introduce the pilot for dK TV. The concept is simple. We visit one city per episode and sample the top dishes, aka the Ultimate Meal, according to the dishKarma community. Episode 1 was shot in Boston and our stops included: Hot Tomatoes (Hot Tomato Soup), Parish Cafe (The Boss Salad), Nebo (Polpettini Meatballs), Union Bar and Grille (Pan Roasted Chicken) and Mike's Pastry (Chocolate Chip Cannoli). Special thanks go out to everyone who submitted their dishes for consideration and to all the restaurants for welcoming our crew.Episode 2 takes place in Chicago, so be sure to upload your favorite dishes from the Windy City along with the menu items that make up your Ultimate Meal from around the world.
This year we had a chance to experience Taste of the Nation events in four different cities - Hartford (CT), Manchester (NH), New Haven (CT) and Los Angeles (CA). At each stop people came together to celebrate great food and raise money for Share Our Strength.
Here's a quick video recap of the LA event in Media Park:
Among the 40 great chefs and restaurants, I have to say my personal favorite dish was the Black Cod with Miso wrapped in lettuce from Nobu.
We look forward to checking out these great events again next year, but if you live in Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, Napa Valley or Salt Lake City, tickets are still available for 2010!
If you’ve ever booked a restaurant reservation online there’s a good chance you did it through OpenTable. They are the category leader and a recently partnership with Yelp should help them grow even more.
Instead of forming a similar partnership, competing review site Urbanspoon decided to launch a reservation system of their own. The new offering, Urbanspoon Rez, was built to offer restaurants convenience, innovative technology and access to customers. There is also an advanced version called RezBook that allows mobile access (iPhone, iPad and Web access) and the ability to capture more data about customers. Rez was first available in Seattle and LA, but a national launch is under way.
We may have a battle looming and it will be interesting to see how Rez and OpenTable attempt to differentiate themselves to restaurant owners and consumers.
Sarah Sellers is an aspiring singer and amateur chef/food blogger based in Dallas, Texas.She writes about her love of music and food on her blog, Sarah’s Musical Kitchen.Sarah was recently selected by Virgin Records to contribute to their community of “Top Music Bloggers.”Check out her Ultimate Meal to see where you should eat in Dallas and what her favorite new album is:
Tamale Tart with Roast Garlic Custard, Peekytoe Crab and Smoked Tomato Sauce/ Bread service (blue corn muffin)/ Stephan's Original Southwestern Caesar Salad with Jalapeno Polenta Croutons and Parmigiano Reggiano "Chicharron” – Stephan Pyles Restaurant, Dallas, TX
Chips and salsa, guacamole/Enchiladas con pollo/mango margarita- Taco Diner, Dallas, TX
If you didn’t see the 60 Minutes piece on Chef Jose Andres this past Sunday I highly recommend checking it out (you can find the entire episode here).Although a reservation at The Bazaar, his Beverly Hills restaurant, may be hard to come by, Chef Andres believes his unique approach to cooking is much more than a trend.
Andres is one part chef one part mad scientist.He thinks food should be fun and practices molecular gastronomy, a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking.Sitting down for a meal at one of his restaurants is truly an adventure, as outlined in this great post by actress Felicia Day.
Molecular gastronomy has only been an official area of study for the last twenty to thirty years, but it is now approaching a tipping point in popularity thanks to Chef Andres and restaurants like The Bazaar.
Professor Peter Barham is another key player in this movement. In a Discovery Channel piece he outlined molecular gastronomy as a study of the following:
· How and why we evolved our particular taste and flavor sense organs and our general food likes and dislikes?
· How do production methods affect the eventual flavor and texture of food ingredients?
· How are these ingredients changed by different cooking methods?
· Can we devise new cooking methods that produce unusual and improved results of texture and flavor?
· How do our brains actually interpret the signals from all our senses to tell us the "flavor" of food?
· How is our enjoyment of food affected by other influences - the environment in which we eat the food, our mood, etc?
Peter also says that our sense of touch can actually change our perception of flavor.He suggests this experiment to test the theory:
1. Taste a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.
2. Now take a second spoonful, but this time close your eyes and hold a piece of velvet cloth in your hands.Does it taste creamier than before?
3. Now try the same ice cream with a piece of fine sandpaper in your hands.Does the texture seem to become grittier?
What do you think about this approach to food and cooking?Will one of these non-traditional dishes make their way into your ultimate meal?
We’ve been fans of the wine pairing and suggestion guide Hello Vino since we visited their booth at the Boston Wine Expo. Today we’re excited to bring you an Ultimate Meal video from the co-founder of this popular mobile application, Jim McNamee.
In this video Jim shares some of his favorite dishes, along with a few tips on the type of wine he would pour to wash them down.
Bread, cheese and olive oil –Countryside farmhouse, Florance, Italy.
Have you tried any of these dishes? Think you know of a better place that serves them up? Leave a comment or upload the dishes to your personal menu on dishKarma.
This past week we launched the first version of dishKarma. You can now:
- Upload your favorite dishes
- Save dishes by course in your own personal menu
- Easily share your activity with friends via Facebook, Twitter and email
- Help feed someone in need
The mission of dishKarma is to improve dining experiences for everyone. With your help we will accomplish this by sharing and comparing our favorite dishes, but also by giving back to those less fortunate. With that in mind, we are extremely proud to announce that GiveBackAmerica.org will donate one meal to Feeding America for every five dishes, aka one meal, that you upload to dishKarma.
We'll announce more partnerships and release a few new features soon, but for now please share some of your favorite dishes and start building your own menu. We'd truly appreciate your feedback as well. Tell us what you like, what you don't like and what you think we should do to improve the overall experience of dishKarma.
Today we're excited to introduce you to Mark Leslie, a connoisseur of Italian food and the author of Beyond the Pasta. Mark's Ultimate Italian Meal is full of unique dishes and some truly amazing venues! Check it out and let us know about you're favorite Italian dishes!
Antipasti: Seafood Salad ("Insalata di mare del pescatore") at Siciliainbocca, Rome, Italy Smoked Tuna at Anticha Locanda Montin, Venice, Italy Primi: Pasta first course: Lasagne Verdi alla Bolognese at Biba Restaurant, Sacramento, CA Risotto alla Parmigiana at Osteria da Divo, Siena, Italy Secondi: Meat course: Braised Rabbit Shanks at Osteria dell'Angelo, Rome, Italy Filleto di Manzo at Al Volto in Longare, Italy Il Dolce: Dessert: La Torta di Nonna (Nonna's secret ricotta and lemon torta, only made on special occasions). Sgrupino (lemon gelato, prosecco, vodka) at Ristorante Monserrato, Rome, Italy.
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