It is a debate we have all argued in our time: who has the best pizza in town? The best burger? Best coffee?
It is a debate we have all argued in our time: who has the best pizza in town? The best burger? Best coffee?
Whatever the cuisine might be, everyone has an opinion on the matter, and reaching a consensus can be a daunting task.
Websites like yelp are often go-to sources for people looking for answers, but even these sites can be confusing, with restaurants having both a five-star and one-star review.
There is, however, hope in a new website which promises to not only accurately find out the best places for all your favorite foods, but also help you discover an eating experience that is not only unique, but selected by fellow food-lovers.
Johnny Hugel, a producer with product development group Mobelux believes their new website Best Dish will take all the guess-work out of finding the very best dishes in Richmond and beyond.
Best Dish is also a place for food-lovers to recommend and choose the best their city has to offer, in a friendly forum. Hugel has offered some details on the inspiration behind Best Dish, how he hopes to see it implemented, and his own experiences with Richmond’s diverse selection in dining.
Hugel, a Richmond resident of 15 years, said the city was a source of inspiration for creating Best Dish. “We started in Richmond, it being our home and a place where we loved the food, and wanted to champion the food and expected that other people would share the same mentality,” Hagel said.
From here, Hagel wants to turn Best Dish into “a site for discovering, championing and rallying around the best food items in your city and eventually across the country.”
At the moment, Best Dish provides users with options for the best Richmond and Washington, D.C. Has to offer, with offerings for Austin, TX and Philadelphia, PA in the works.
Hugel believes Best Dish will give people a chance to try something new and help them find someplace to eat they might have never thought of otherwise.
An avid traveler, Hugel says, “I’m more apt to take an adventure to go out of my way to find some kind of special dish in the city.” Hugel also encourages people to use Best Dish to take all the guess-work out of finding someplace great to eat.
According to Hugel, the two biggest objectives of Best Dish are to help people find “quite literally just the best of whatever category,” and “to show the variety the city has to offer and give you some options.”
Another feature of Best Dish Hugel mentions is user-based rankings and recommendations. “The goal of the site is to champion these underground dishes in a way that is fun and so there’s a competitive aspect to it, but we really want it to be fun and positive,” Hugel says.
Thanks to this atmosphere of accessibility and grass-roots promotion, Hugel hopes it will level the playing field for “alternative or more obscure venues, whether they be food trucks, pop up restaurants, a hole in the wall or a dive.”
Hugel believes this has encouraged restauranteurs to engage in social media and reach out to their supporters. “In different ways, a lot of the venues seem to be realizing that this is kind of intended to be a fun thing that gives them a way to rally their fans and clients a way to rally around their favorites.”
For those excited about the potential Best Dish offers, Hugel encourages everyone to not only cast their votes for their own favorite dishes, but also to consider financially backing Best Dish, with contributors being eligible for perks like restaurant discounts and t-shirts, as well as the simple satisfaction of being part of a truly unique website that may soon change the way the choose where to eat and drink.
