In the spring of last year Andrea Chiu posted a tweet about how much she loved the patio at Brassaii. One of Chui’s friends, Suresh Doss, tweeted back suggesting they meet up for a drink. Because they are both foodies, he tagged the tweet #foodiemeet.
The invitation was left open, allowing other users to jump in on the plans. Doss and Chiu figured a handful of other local foodies would attend, but doubted they would need a table for more than 10. The tag caught on and was rapidly re-tweeted; a sign tech-friendly foodies in Toronto were eager to meet up in real life.
By the time the event took place the following Thursday, hundreds of people had seen the tag. Over 90 showed up, surprising the hosts. As the editor of SpotlightToronto.com, a local food and events site, Doss knew the local foodie scene was vibrant and plugged in, but it wasn’t until that night that he and Chui saw the community’s true capacity.
The two decided to continue hosting events for foodies and promoting them on twitter. Since the first event #foodiemeet has hosted a bake-off, a trip to Prince Edward County, and a tasting of the mysterious miracle berry. Each has sold out.
As an outgrowth new hash tags have appeared in recent months, organizing meet ups to sample different types of food and bring Toronto’s tweeting masses together. Soon after Doss and Chui’s first meet up smaller groups began to meet regularly for dim sum, sushi, burgers, BBQ, and spirits.
In between sips of his coffee one morning at Hank’s Doss tells me, “There’s something going on almost every week. The medium has allowed for a lot of physical interaction.”
As the centre of meetup circle, Doss’ dinner invitations are endless. Suddenly, he knows all of Toronto chattering culinary class, and they know him. “My circle has always been food-centric,” Doss says, “but Twitter took it to another level.”
Doss’ dish twitpics and 140-character food musings and reviews are incessant—the man is obviously attached to his iPhone. But Doss isn't the isolated tech-head of web 1.0. In fact, he's in great food-geek company. Thanks to twitter, his days of eating alone are over.
*For the next #foodiemeet Doss tells me he and Chui are organizing a local wine and cheese tasting. Watch FoodieMeet.ca for details.
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It's Andrea Chiu, not Chui
ReplyDeleteHi Russ,
ReplyDeleteIt was good chatting with you last week.
I'd like to clarify some points. The original FoodieMeet was far more planned out than your entry implies. We had about 100 people signed up for the event (thanks to publicizing the event on Twitter). We arranged a special menu with Brassaii for the event attendees. Lifford Wine Agency generously poured very nice wine from Craggy Range (New Zealand) and Steamwhistle provided samples of its beer. We also had raffle prizes donated by food businesses on Twitter.
Thanks,
Andrea Chiu
Nico--thanks for pointing my typo out, that was a huge mistake.
ReplyDeleteAndrea--thanks for posting the clarifications. I've checked my notes and think the post is a correct portrayal of the story Suresh told me, but want to make sure it's accurate on all fronts. We'll talk more soon to make sure the details are correct.