The Rub on Grub

You’ve probably heard the argument that the Internet is making people less social. This point of view suggests we’re uber-connected online, yet less apt to interact face-to-face.

While this may be true in some cases, at dishKarma we believe the best services leverage technology to enhance real world experiences and relationships.

For instance, there are now a number of online tools helping us crawl, spot, share, chew and review our way through meals. Fortunately, the one thing they all have in common is that the actual eating component must take place IRL (in real life).

This month I tried out a new food and friend discovery tool called Grubwithus. The site launched recently in Boston after gaining momentum in Chicago, San Fran, DC, NYC and LA. Soon they’re adding Atlanta and Seattle to the mix.

Basically, Grubwithus was born when two guys moved to Chicago and found it hard to make new friends. The bars and clubs weren’t cutting it, so they decided to build a service that introduced people over a meal. Their inspiration reminds me of the Ultimate Meal Game and the idea that food has the unique ability to bring people together. 

Needless to say, my first experience with Grubwithus was great. I began by building a simple profile on their site and then browsing the upcoming meals in Boston. There’s a meal almost every night of the week so it’s easy to make this work with your schedule.

I narrowed down my search by checking out the fixed menus attached to each meal and the profiles of those who had already committed to attend. Most users don’t include in-depth personal info, but there’s enough to get a sense of the who you’ll be dining with.

There‘s room for 7-10 people at each meal, and the site does a nice job creating a sense of urgency by posting messages like ‘only 2 seats left.’  There’s also a monetary incentive to commit early, as the price goes up by $0.50 per-person after each reservation.

I decided on dinner at Hana Sushi in Cambridge and paid to secure my spot. Not long after the confirmation email, I received a separate message from the site’s co-founder offering $5 off my next meal purchase if I added a profile picture. This was a smart way to personalize the experience, encourage further engagement with the site and increase the likelihood of a repeat purchase.

I also received my actual ticket via email, which included instructions for redemption, directions, a detailed menu, a name tag and a ‘Food for Thought’ section reading; ‘Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college educations,” Mark Twain. Very cool!

When I arrived there were already two people at the table so I joined them and introduced myself. It’s tough to conduct one conversation with a table of eight people, so we casually broke off into smaller discussions once the full group showed up.

We had a fascinating mix of people at the table including an MIT professor, a woman who coaches people through writers block, a former sky diving instructor who now manages a chocolate factory and a woman who had a successful startup as a teenager halfway across the world and now attends college in MA.

The food was great and my favorite dish was the Green Tea Mochi (pounded sticky rice) Ice Cream, which I just added to my personal menu on dishKarma.

Two days after the meal I received a very nice message from the Grubwithus Development Director making sure I had a good time and asking for feedback. Another great touch.

Overall this was a great experience and I will definitely use the service again. I’m even thinking about booking meals when I visit other cities as a way to meet locals and try new restaurants.

Have you tried Grubwithus yet?

Give it a shot and let us know what you think.