There are plenty of apps and websites for finding great local restaurants, but a new startup in Chicago is betting that advice from fitness experts, a private social network for foodies, and a list of local promotions will have people finding the best places to eat in the Windy City.
Savoir officially launched Tuesday on iOS with 600 Chicagoland restaurants on its platform. Using recommendations, reviews and promotions, the app wants to be a one-stop-shop for finding a place to eat in Chicago, said Shatabdi Basu, co-founder and CMO.
The app works like this: Savoir shows you nearby restaurants that it has researched and selected, and each listing includes Yelp ratings and menus. But to differentiate itself from other restaurant discovery apps, Savoir has three features to bring more information to your dining search. It offers a private social networking component called InnerCircle, where users can post, view and share restaurant reviews within their community groups. FitLens, a hand-picked panel of fitness and diet experts, shares health conscious recommendations for people sticking to a diet. And Savoir's Promos features shows all available deals for a given restaurants, pulling information from Groupon, Amazon Local, and other deal sites, as well as the restaurant itself.
But as Basu and her husband and co-founder Nirav Saraiya found, the most effective way of finding new restaurants is still by word of mouth, and the reason they believe InnerCircle is Savoir's most important feature for foodies.
"From our experience, we felt that while there are multiple ways of discovering restaurants, still asking friends, co-workers, and people that we know seem to be the primary reference point," Basu said. "There was really nothing out there that was focused on helping you get access to that opinion right away."
Basu said the app has been in development for two years, and after a soft beta launch Savoir has gained around 5,000 users. While user growth, not revenue, is Savoir's immediate goal, Basu said the app is looking at several possible revenue streams, including in-app advertising and revenue sharing with companies that offer restaurant deals.
Savoir is looking to expand to New York and San Francisco next, and expects to add new features like mobile pay, table reservations, and automated wait list updates.
"What Savoir is doing is finding restaurants and really personalizing (them)," she said. "Having that community, being able to share with people, having access to their reviews, (and) you can see what fitness professionals are saying. I don’t think any other restaurant discovery platform right now is offering that."
Currently only on iOS, Savoir expects to launch an Android app down the road, the company says.
Images via Savoir
