Local Business Spotlight: Dishcrawl

Three years ago, when this was a fledgling food blog attempting to cover a region that even our own residents did not find interesting, Dishcrawl was an infant start up. They invited me to come out to a local Dishcrawl event but the timing never worked out and we soon forgot about each other in our separate food journeys. When I was in Austin, I met local food bloggers who spoke excitedly about the Dishcrawl events happening in Austin. This was when I realized that the company that emailed me 3 years ago now had a national reach. I owed it to myself to reconnect with them which is what brought you the three South Bay Dishcrawl event recaps: Sunnyvale, Downtown San Jose, and Campbell.

Dishcrawl was established in 2010 in San Jose, originally throwing events to promote the app "Battledish." It has since morphed into a social dining experience and Battledish is now much different than a mobile app. Crawls are held in 125 cities across the United States and Canada. The company has a goal of bringing the community together over food and provide exposure to local restaurants. Diners pay $45 for a ticket to try 4 local restaurants. They are only told what the first restaurant will be 24 hours before the start of the event. 

With a key demographic of 35-55 year old professionals who attend after work, Dishcrawl provides a great opportunity to meet people outside of work in a low key environment. The neighborhoods and cities which host the crawls often have a concentrated area of restaurants. Much of Dishcrawl's popularity is in smaller towns and college towns. This is an example of how a single business can help grow a market in a small town and also educate that market on the concept of social dining. Restaurants are chosen based on the variety it provides to the night's itinerary, new or overlooked restaurants, and local establishments with ingrained roots in the community. Hopefully we see Dishcrawl expand overseas in a few years. It's always amazing to see San Joseans do big things!

On October 5, I am helping to judge the San Mateo Battledish event thrown by Dishcrawl. Use code "sanjosefoodblog" for free tickets to Battledish Beta Tasting in San Mateo. You can cast your vote for the best food truck chef in San Mateo to compete with 74 other chefs in the world for the esteemed title of "King of Battledish." Get your tickets here.