Progress with My “Places to Eat” Web Application

Over five years ago, I blogged about starting my “Places to Eat” web application. Then about the “Places to Eat” application’s progress. I still work on it now and again, mostly adding new restaurants or city/states. You can find my list of restaurants at Gotta Eat Here.

Since then, I have been playing around with the accessibility and usability of the application. I did this to make sure the restaurant information worked for everyone.

Leftover cheeses, cured meats, and even a few veggies on a cutting board in my living room.

The above photo was an excellent snack that I had while starting the research of iOS applications related to finding a place to eat, drink, attend an event, etc.

I still haven’t completed all the research on other applications that you can store places to eat. I need to do the research again and see how the applications have changed when I start over two years ago on this post.

But I have asked people I know or meet at conferences if and how they keep track of where they want to eat when traveling. I have used their feedback in my process to build something easy to use. Along with getting them the restaurant information quickly and easily.

10k Apart Contest

Years ago, An Event Apart and Microsoft put on a contest to build a web-based application in under 10 Kb. It was called 10K Apart. The contest was an easy way to code a light-weight mini-application to display all the places I liked. I have gotten other recommendations from people I know in a given city, or from blog posts/articles, or TV shows.

The plan was to build the main HTML and CSS template in three to four kilobytes. So I had six or seven kilobytes for the content. I used PHP to read in JSON files for each city that contained all the restaurant’s information.

I spent about eight or ten hours building the responsive template. The beautiful thing is there was no primary navigation, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I simply created a drop-down list of cities and states that you could choose. Then people could find out where I recommend they eat n those locations.

10K Apart Entry

The 10K Apart version was only ten restaurants per city, so when the page rendered, it was under 10 kilobytes. I wasn’t sure if the 10K Apart contest would count each page towards the total kilobyte count.

So I built the PHP code to refresh the page with the content back to itself with a full-page reload. At first, I used POST for the form, which hid the location information from the URL. Later on, I changed it to a GET. So I could send people a link that had a city parameter ( slct ) in it to save them having to look things up themselves.

After the 10K Apart Contest

I used the 10K Apart contest entry as my starting point for a much larger version. I built a more comprehensive individual city and state JSON files of places I ate or wanted to eat. I started it to have an easily accessible list for myself, or if people wanted recommendations, I could send them a link.

Since the contest ended, I have added more restaurants, cities, states, etc., that I forgot about previously. Or new places I have tried and would recommend to others since then.

Over time I have even removed a few restaurants because the last few times I went, the food was not as good as it used to be. I have also removed places that have closed. I have removed more spots during the pandemic than at any other time.

With over 75 cities/states and close to 1,000 restaurants. It’s not an easy task to check broken/redirected links. So every few months, I check each city or state using the W3c’s Link Checker. Short blog post to come on how I do that.

This reminds me that during the pandemic, I should do it more often.

Future Plans

Long term, the plan is to start posting every two weeks or so. A handful of places I recommend you should eat at in a given location or for a type of cuisine. I think a newsletter would be a reliable way to do it too. But first, I need to look into newsletters, etc. I did create a MailChimp one that I haven’t used yet that I need to find again.

I’m doing this, so I will have a shortlist for a location to share with people in the future. When they ask for recommendations for a city or places I have already been. Along with maybe a bonus place I’m looking forward to going to when it’s safe to travel.

Future Posts

Over time I plan on writing multiple posts for some of the following locations and other locations:

  • Annapolis, MD
  • Austin, TX
  • Baltimore, MD
  • Buffalo, NY
  • Cleveland, PA
  • Las Vegas, NV
  • Memphis, TN
  • Nashville, TN
  • New Orleans, LA
  • New York, NY
  • Northern California
  • Northern Virginia
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Portland, OR
  • Rochester, NY
  • San Diego, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Southern California
  • Syracuse, NY
  • Washington, DC
  • and many more

Conclusion

Please leave any restaurant suggestions in the comments. Along with any cities you are traveling to and want recommendations. If I have any knowledge about the locations, I will work on adding them to my list of over 75 cities or write a post about them if I already have information on them.

It would be helpful if you could please include the restaurant’s name, address (city and state), phone number, link, etc. Doing so will be helpful I’m when looking into them more.

If you want to find out more about places to eat, please register to receive an e-mail/newsletter when they are available.

Looking to Start a Newsletter of Places to Eat

I’m thinking of starting a newsletter about places to eat when people travel. That is when it’s safe to d so again. But I can give you an idea of restaurants to go to that I recommend.

I think it was over two years ago I set up a MailChimp newsletter related to places to eat when traveling. So I need to look for that information again and see if that is still valid. In the meantime, I need to start working on a few drafts of places to eat.

At some point, I need to check that the places I love to go to are still open after the pandemic.

I think I would send the newsletter out once every two weeks to start. They would have five or six places to eat in one city or state.

Ideas for Newsletters

Each newsletter would include a place to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They would also include somewhere to go in for a coffee, tea, etc., to get work done or relax. Along with a place for an afternoon snack or a beverage, and then a place for a late-night meal.

Some of the newsletters might have more of one type of place or another if I cannot decide which place to add.

For the larger cities, there might be many newsletters because I have found so many places to go in that city.

It won’t all be larger cities. There will be ones on places like Buffalo, Rochester, or Syracuse, NY, or Joshua Tree, CA, Akron or Columbus, OH, or Jackson, MS, Annapolis or Frederick or Grasonville, MD., etc.

Multiple Newsletters for Larger Cities

Some of those cities would be New York City, Washington, DC, Portland, OR, Seattle, Los Angles, San Diego, etc. I have so many places in those cities to suggest that I would recommend.

So for those cities, I would showcase places in a particular neighborhood. So that way you can walk to all the restaurants if you want and spend a day getting to know an area of that city.

Newsletter about a Given Food Type

Other newsletters might be on a specific topic. Such as places for Ramen, pizza, hamburgers, ice cream, Chinese food. Or maybe whole in the wall places, BBQ, vegetarian/vegan, etc.

Are You Interested?

Please leave a comment if you’re interested in signing up for an e-mail related to places I recommend. If so, I will notify you once you can sign up for the newsletter.

Or ones that might be in your home town that you suggest I go to at some point.

Home for 4th of July

I’m currently at home in Buffalo, NY at my parents to celebrate the 4th of July holiday with my family. After driving almost 9 hours Thursday to get here I spent time with a few friends, my god son, and my parents.

Today is going to be spent with a few one of my brothers, his wife, and three boys (Denver, CO), along with one of my sisters, her husband, and three boys (Columbus, OH). Relaxing and getting ready for the big party on Saturday, which includes my other sister, her husband, and two girls (Buffalo, NY), along with my other brother (Buffalo, NY), two aunts and uncles (Rochester, NY) and a bunch of their kids and grand kids (Rochester, NY and Centreville, VA).

Today should be filled with a seeing how much all my nieces and nephews have grown over the last year, since I have seen most of them. Mostly time will be spent playing hockey in the driveway, swimming in the pool, and a whole lot of cards. We are more of a gin and euchre type of crowd. Even my almost 13 year old (in less than two weeks) and his 10 (?) brother have been playing for a few years and are fairly good last time we played.

The big crowd of 34 people does not get to my parents until Saturday around 1:00 PM. At that time there will 20 adults, if you count me and a few of the others that act like kids most days and then 14 children that are 13 and under. Most are in the 4 to 8 year old range. It should be a nice quite affair at my parents.

Hope you all have a a great 4th of July and drive safely if traveling.

Please leave a message of your plans or what you end up doing for the holiday.