Ben Leventhal and NBC Local Launch Feast!
As the community of food blogging matures, it is refreshing to see some quality innovations taking place. The audience is ready for something else. For too long, the food blogging scene has been a top down pyramid, with you know who at the top, quickly followed by Serious Eats, Grub Street, and other assorted aggregators and networks. The bottom of the pyramid contains countless personal food blogs, many of dubious quality, derivative writing, and the photographic skills of retarded monkeys.
Of course, there are gems out there. I’ve been really enjoying Immaculate Infatutation tremendously and think the Stang/ Steinthal duo have hit upon a brand with some legs. Time to quit the day jobs boys! I did! (cough got fired cough) Another favorite is Always Hungry NY. Jeff Zalaznick and his team of cohorts know how to cover the entirety of a meal. Their experiments in video have been fun. More please.
The Next Evolution of Food Blogs
Last week was the real game changer when Ben Leventhal and the Corporatti over at NBC Local launched Feast. One would assume they are well-funded which makes comparisons to many other bootstrapped food blogs irrelevant, but its clear some serious thought has gone into Feast. The internet is paved with the bones of those who have underestimated Ben Leventhal.
The site looks great, which in an age of information overload is a serious must. How many bloggers have I coached on the importance of excellent design in the past 6 months? Dozens, though they don’t really listen, and they’re traffic shows it. Beyond design, the functionality of the site is crisply executed; seamless integration with Facebook, allowing one-click authentication, Twitter streaming, Google map integration and a funky little “Locals Are…” function that empowers one to append a feeling about a given story ranging from “intrigued to thrilled.” Glad to see this little tidbit imported over from the NBC Local site. Even though Feast is still technically in beta, the site feels finished in a way that some 4 year old blogs never will.
An Eater Beater?
The site competes with Eater only in the sense of filing quick stories and breaking news. As of 5pm EST, Feast had filed nearly 15 blog posts. Again, one can only do that with a team of bloggers and editors. But what seperates Feast from Eater is the richness of the content. In a sense, it is the Rich Man’s Eater. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. Growing up in NYC means coming to terms with the phrase, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” What a wonderful ethos! Since Eater has now gone national, Feast, even with plans to follow, is not really competing with Eater. I think it is more helpful to look at the sites as leading members of the food community online.
Feast really is a rich site in the sense that its a step up from the sheer abundance of Eater. The video content on the site, an absolute must for legitimate food blogs and content creators from here on out, is well-produced and edited. It is slick, streams without a hitch, and the content is engaging. Watching Daniel Boulud (formerly D-Biggity) subtly rip Nate Appleman over the upcoming Pulino’s at a charity event was easily worth the 2 minute investment. That’s the kind of insider access these guys can and will get. It is the kind of thing I want to see. Call me shallow if you must, it won’t be the first or last time.
What Does the Data Say?
Where Leventhal and his team really shine is in their Feast Rank system, described thusly:
Feast Rank was built to cull and navigate the staggering amount of content the web produces about restaurants. From the New York Times to The Miami Herald to indie blogs like Immaculate Infatuation to users on Citysearch, reviews, news and color comes unrelenting. This is a good thing so long as we can keep track of it, which is where Feast Rank comes in.
Ben is absolutely right to endow Feast with a curatorial mission. The range of information out there is completely overwhelming. Feast Rank allows for visual representation of that data in a way that is simple and powerful. Up and down arrows show trending topics, point scores show off what restaurants or chefs are receiving good or bad buzz, along with “Top Ranks, Featured Stories and Feast Watch.” As someone working with numerous clients negotiate the interwebs, the execution, even at this early stage, is impressive.
To be well-informed should not require tracking hundreds of food blogs, websites, projects and magazines. Instead, by curating that content, Feast can be the place to get the best of the best. Now of course, this means they have to get Feast Rank right, and that is far from assured. It could just be a gimmick. But Leventhal and his team know that if they don’t deliver on Feast Rank, they’ll just be another blog. Albeit, one with access and resources. Still, it won’t be enough, not to push the envelope which is what we’ve come to expect from Leventhal and his team, which by the way is quite the lineup. Former Eater writer Matt Duckor will be doing the heavy lifting, along with Rachel Syme, a lovely writer from the Daily Beast and Alex Vallis, of New York Magazine filling out the rotation.
So anyway, who’s hungry? Let’s Feast!
