LocalEats, an iPhone dining guide application, launched a new feature for restaurant customers in New York City. More than 100 restaurants in Manhattan are offering mobile savings directly to customers using LocalEats.
Available for the iPhone 3G, the new iPhone 3GS, and BlackBerry Storm, users simply pull up mobile offers on LocalEats and present them to their waiters before ordering. Many of New York’s restaurants have signed on, including the Four Seasons, Daniel, Babbo, Rosa Mexicano and dozens of others across the culinary landscape.
“The LocalEats mobile app lets restaurant owners communicate directly with their customers, offering dining discounts … and new menu items—the kind of special offers that cause foodies to change course for their evening out,” says Bill King, whose Magellan Press has for a decade published Where the Locals Eatdining guides, and who introduced the LocalEats application on the iPhone last year. “The iPhone has revolutionized how people find great restaurants and make reservations, and the LocalEats coupon technology is an extension of that breakthrough.”
LocalEats has remained near the top of the list of iPhone paid travel apps since its launch last year. It is currently the No. 2 paid dining app and the No. 4 overall paid travel app. In March, more than 21,000 mobile phone users within three miles of Central Park used LocalEats’ “Near Me” application to find a restaurant in their vicinity. Two months later, that number jumped to over 87,000.
“As an iPhone user and a chef, I see the great benefits of the LocalEats application,” says Terrance Brennan, chef and proprietor of Picholine, Artisanal, and Bar Artisanal restaurants, the latter two of which have special offers available via LocalEats. “The iPhone community is expanding and so is the reach and appeal of LocalEats. This helps us put the Artisanal and Picholine brands in the hands of diners any time, anywhere, which is exactly what we want. It’s serious diners who are interested in the application and search its database. And we’re all about serious diners.”
The LocalEats iPhone application costs 99 cents to download and updates regularly without charge. LocalEats for the BlackBerry Storm is $2.99. As other companies offer touchscreen phones, LocalEats plans to create compatible applications.
