Many people claim that Toledo has more restaurants per capita than any city in the country. Whether that’s true or not, you do have plenty of eating-out choices.

Before venturing out for that meal, Matt Braun wants you to first choose ToledoMenu.com.

Braun launched ToledoMenu.com in April 2008. The current site is a detailed listing of more than 130 Toledo and area restaurants, with many listings including menus. Users can use a site search or select from popular tags (pizza, Italian, downtown, etc.) to locate a place to eat, and save restaurant listings to their profile on one of several popular social bookmark and network Websites.

Registered users have the ability to add restaurants, rate them and submit reviews – with a number of already on the site.

“I like eating out and think I know a fair number of restaurants in the area. Often, my friends would ask me for suggestions, and so I figured why not put that knowledge out there and allow others to build on it,” said Braun, who operates Magnate Interactive, a Website design and development firm.

In addition to restaurant listings, menus and reviews, ToledoMenu.com includes local events provided by Yahoo!’s Upcoming service. Braun said he developed a mobile version that is optimized for iPhone devices, but also is viewable by the majority of mobile devices. That site is located at ToledoMenu.com/m.

The current menu of information at ToledoMenu.com is just an appetizer, according to Braun. He wants to add more functionality to the site, such as enhanced restaurant listings with more description, photos, menus, etc., provided by restaurants, and a “night out planner.”

“It’d be cool for people to see an events list and then see places you can eat that are nearby, or vice versa by choosing a restaurant and see what events are happening in the area,” Braun explained.

As part of the planner, Braun said visitors would be able to select a restaurant and event, and then email that plan to friends and family.

While there already exist comparable restaurant sites like Yelp and Yahoo! Local, Braun said those sites can’t have the “level of intimate knowledge” that a hyper-local site like ToledoMenu.com offers.

In addition, while users can leave comments on those sites if a restaurant changes or closes, the main listing usually isn’t updated.

“There’s just no hand-crafted feel with those sites that you get with what I’ve tried to do with ToledoMenu,” Braun said.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life.
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