Philadelphia Weekly

FOOD

Local Food & Drink Cravings? There's an App (or Two) for That

By Nicole Finkbiner

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted May. 16, 2012

Craving street cuisine on your break or a cold craft beer after work? There’s an app for that! In fact, here are two must-have apps for any Philadelphian who likes to put things in their mouth.

Roaming Hunger

The cornerstone brand of the street-food movement since 2009, Roaming Hunger serves as the official food truck info hub in more than 20 cities and, in February, it launched in Philly. The website and app uses real time tweets and calendars to track food trucks and carts, offering locals a comprehensive map, with meals searchable by “savory,” “sweet” and “vegetarian.” Roaming Hunger also allows users to book vendors for an event and even recently expanded its services to help entrepreneurs start their own mobile-food business. There are currently 37 vendors in Philly’s mapping system, and company spokesperson Ryan Carlin expects this number to grow quickly. “We’re amazed at how intense Philadelphians are about their food,” he says. Be sure to suggest your favorite truck through their website if it isn’t already included. (Available free for iPhone and iPad users.)

Find Craft Beer

The mobile offshoot of BeerMapping.com, a project launched by father-and-son software developers Glen and Chris Smith from New Jersey, Find Craft Beer uses your phone’s GPS to direct you to the nearest brew pubs, breweries, beer stores and homebrew shops. Users can sort through the app’s massive database—which currently includes 130 (and growing) craft beer locations in Philly and many more in the surrounding suburbs—by distance, ratings and reviews. Users can also submit their own reviews and photos. “While other cities such as Portland or Ashville, N.C., might have more breweries than Philly, we’d put what the local breweries provide up against anything you can find from those locations,” Glen says. “And outside of the local breweries, we can’t think of any city that gets the quality of beer from around the world that Philly does.” (Available for 99 cents for iPhone, iPad and Andriod users.)