Philly SteakOut: Website Helps People Decide Where to Grab a Cheesesteak
You’ve probably already seen this site making the rounds, what with its major local appeal. It was all started internally at Neiman Group. They’ve got something called Neiman Labs.
The entire goal of the group is to explore the new developments that have come about with the adoption of tech and social media, Philly SteakOut is a product of that exploration. I had a chance to chat briefly with Chris Reif (a Tony Luke’s guy but admitted Steak ‘Em Up is his dark horse) and George Ward (cut from the same cheesesteak wrap as I, being a fan of the steaks from John’s Roast Pork) from Neiman to learn a bit more.
With the recent win of new business with the National Constitution Center, they were still deeply interested in tourism. They created Philly SteakOut which takes something close to the interests of locals and natives alike. Basically, it harnesses all the user-generated location data (foursquare checkins/photos, Yelp rating) in a useful way. The tourist vs. local twist was an insight that developer, Dan DeLauro came up with by comparing the user’s hometown to the location where they checked in.
All in all, I personally find it to be an excellent creative use of freely available social media/tech data, clean web design (there’s a mobile interface too) and most delicious food. We’re always arguing cheesesteaks around here aren’t we? At least we’ve got one thing where we can gauge and rank the various places (at least if by traffic among the social media/tech-inclined geeky crowd).
Ultimately, they’d love to expand this site’s features and functions so that it becomes the one-stop shop for helping people decide to grab a steak. At the very least, they’re hoping it will encourage patrons to checkin more frequently, thereby effectively casting a vote for their restaurant of choice on their leader board. For the time being, they’re not accepting any requests for additions, as this is a very 1.0 release.
“Neiman Labs is always cooking something up. This past October it was Social Sweets. Then it was Neiman Globe, transforming one of our glass offices into a interactive, human-sized snow globe for the holidays. We love tinkering with the use of technology and the physical world. Certainly look for more to come.” – Chris Reif
I’m looking forward to updates, or at the very least seeing Dalessandro’s or John’s Roast Pork climb the charts. In the meantime, I’ll be visiting www.PhillySteakOut.com anxiously waiting.
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Even a pescetarian like me can appreciate the killer concept of that site (and, let’s confess: also an occasional cheesesteak). I’ll be pointing out-of-town friends to it for as long as it’s alive!