RVAEats.com – All Restaurants Invited
February 28, 2008
We are working on a new site that is going to be released in the beginning/middle of March. It’s called RVAEats.com, a Richmond restaurant directory. You’ll also be able to search on restaurants in various ways, view menus, open/closing times, phone numbers, addresses, etc. You can see our prototype at RVAEats.com.
Right now we are looking for restaurants to sign up, so if you are one – go to www.rvaeats.com/signup to get your restaurant listed. If you aren’t you can still pass the word to your restaurant buddies – that would be a big help.
Here is something else that is cool — we have teamed up with the Richmond Tap Project which is part of the UNICEF Tap Project. They are raising money for kids that have no water. If restaurants sign up for RVAEats.com and Richmond Tap Project then RVAEats.com will donate the first month’s fee to the Richmond Tap Project helping the less fortunate kids in this world.
So – help us raise money and get this word out to restaurants! (pretty please)
Restaurant Sign Up: www.rvaeats.com/signup/
20 Responses to “RVAEats.com – All Restaurants Invited”
1. Tess says:
Finally!!!!!!!!!
Thank you.
on February 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
2. The Fan District Hub » Blog Archive » All Restaurants Invited says:
[...] here to read the entire [...]
on February 28th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
3. RVAjazz says:
This is great! Thanks!
on February 28th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
4. RVA Foodie says:
I’m sure Brandon is flattered to know that all of RVA is taking after her.
Just curious… Will there be any kind of reputation system or collection of comments for the restaurants? I know that if an eatery pays for its listing, they wouldn’t want trash talking attached to their ad. However, feedback (critical and positive) can be useful both to consumers and businesses.
on February 28th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
5. Scott Pharr says:
We talked about having heavy moderated comments, we also have talked about linking to reviews from the RTD, Richmond.com, Style, etc. We agree though that restaurants shouldn’t pay for bad reviews on their listing, but it would be nice (I would hope) for people to voice concerns straight to the owners, just maybe not for the public. It’s an ongoing question over here right now.
The launch will NOT include commenting until we can figure out a great way to deal with it.
on February 29th, 2008 at 8:34 am
6. Eric says:
Not sure how this would work. But what if readers wanting to leave comments had to register with the site (no anon). Each registered user gets points based on positive and negative comments he leaves. That way Joe Blow who is thinking about going to Cous Cous won’t be bothered by the 1 bad comment that soso made because he has a history of leaving bad comments. Did I make any sense? Kind of like e-bay but without the buying of stuff.
on February 29th, 2008 at 8:57 am
7. Valerie says:
STARS! Do averages of visitors’ ratings. LET THE PEOPLE HAVE THEIR SAY!
on February 29th, 2008 at 11:08 am
8. Scott Pharr says:
Mmmmhmm ..I’ve heard that from someone else too. Oh wait it was your husband.
on February 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am
9. Andrea says:
Yipppeeee! RVAeats. Can’t wait. I love finding great places to eat Richmond, especially of the non-chain variety.
Thanks for doing this.
on February 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am
10. Susan Howson says:
I think ratings are nice and vague, especially and average. After all, it’s not YOUR fault if everybody hates a restaurant. The restaurant should be like “oh. Well. Crap. Back to the drawing board.”
What if the restaurant could make comments? Like, “Lately we’ve heard some complaints abuot our wine selection – you’ll be happy to know we’ve hired a new sommalier and we’re really excited about her choices!”
on February 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
11. Susan Howson says:
….especially AN average, I meant to type.
Also would it be legit to link to reviews on other people’s sites instead?
on February 29th, 2008 at 11:43 am
12. Valerie says:
He got that idea from me. As he does with everything. Haha jk, I’m useless.
on February 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
13. John witherspoon says:
WOW
That is fantastic – glad to hear and it is definitely a long time coming.
John
on February 29th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
14. RVA Foodie says:
Thanks for taking my question about feedback seriously. Consumer advocacy is one of my passions, but it doesn’t have to be the mission of RVAEats. Considering the participatory potential of Web 2.0 technology, I didn’t figure RVAEats was going to settle for building a better phone book. If this thing weren’t driven by restaurant buy-in, I think it’d be a different story altogether.
The rating system is curious, but ratings are one dimensional and can be really misleading. Domino’s predictable product may wind up with 5 stars, while 8 1/2 gets 3 stars because the pizza doesn’t have parma-blasted stuffed crust and there’s no place to sit. So, nuance necessitates comments.
River City Rapids has a post up that says comments may be allowed at the restaurant’s discretion. But you can’t force a respect for feedback on a restaurateur and after a couple bitter pills, they’ll probably shut that option down quick. Further, I just don’t know if it’s a reasonable expectation that a disgruntled diner is going to get the owner of a restaurant on the phone and explain that s/he paid twice because they just spent longer on the toilet than they did in the dining room. Hence, the need for a sober-minded and dehydrated comment section (that will nonetheless be spoiled by a few bad apples).
on February 29th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
15. Andrea says:
Uhhhh….I just wanna get my eat on.
on February 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
16. The804.com–Richmond VA Real Estate Blog » Glutton Roundup: RVAEats, Moshi, FBI, Lakeside, Charburger, Popkins, City Limit, Irish Bars, and Ricotta Cake says:
[...] RVANews, new Richmond restaurant site RVAEats.com is getting ready to launch (see press release RVAEats.com- All Restaurants Invited | Get On The Menu of Richmond’s New Restaurant Web Site!) Having a google map navigation [...]
on February 29th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
17. Scott Pharr says:
Well if you know any restaurant owners then let us know or pass the site on to them.
Thanks for all the GREAT feedback!
on March 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
18. Rad says:
You’re telling me people have to subscribe to end up in your search results? What you’re proposing is a walled garden…very 1998, not 2008.
Have you not learned anything about search? It needs to be free both for the searcher and the company being searched. Forcing someone to pay $144 to end up in your search results will be this site’s undoing.
on March 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
19. WmBragg says:
This city needs a good restaurant site. The usual suspects’ sites stink to high heaven. I would think restaurants would pay a few bucks to be part of a cool site.
on March 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 pm
20. Daniel says:
Hey Rad, that is a valid critique of a restaurant search engine. That’s not what this site is/will be though. This is a local restaurant directory(with a search feature) and in phase two hopefully a social network for people who like to eat out. It’s not worth developing a local site on a Pay-Per-Click advertising model and if you really want search you should goto: http://local.google.com/ and search for something like “italian restaurant near richmond, va” and you’ll get great results. We want to be a compliment to that, be a good way for restaurants to get found locally and build a sustainable business model for it.
on March 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 am