Finding exactly what you want, when you want it.

Happy Friday everyone!

Before I get into today's post, I'd like to thank everyone for coming to our Eat-Up at South of Beale earlier this week. We gave away t-shirts, showed off our mobile apps, met our fabulous users and generally had a blast. We've got more events like that planned for the future so be sure to watch this space!

I'd also like to remind you that it's not to late to enter this week's "Make Mark Eat It" contest. This week's contenders are listed here.

Today I'd like to spotlight one of the most interesting features of MarksMenus and how it helps set us apart from other similar services. Most places will let you search for restaurants by a genre, like "Italian" or "Tex-Mex". One of the problems with this manner of searching is that it's not very specific.

Right now I want for you, the reader, to think of the first dish that comes to mind when I say "Italian Food". Some of you are thinking about a dish like Linguini and some of you are thinking about a big ol' Meatball Sub.

Both of these dishes fall under the category of Italian food, but they are representative of two totally different dining experiences. One of them is something that you can grab during your lunch break, the other will probably involve a nice bottle of wine and a date.

Have you ever noticed that you can tell a lot about a restaurant by their menu? If you see that a restaurant has their wine list on their menu, it's a good bet that you should probably ditch the jeans and the Ed Hardy shirt and throw on some Dockers. The ability to check out a menu *before* you arrive is a great way to know whether or not that great "Italian Restaurant" you're taking your first date to is a place with cloth tablecloths or a pizza shack with a wide-screen TV and a Galaga machine in front of the restrooms.

This is just one of the ways in which we separate ourselves from other search engines. By allowing you to search at the dish level, we can help you find not only the food that you want but set your expectation of the dining experience.

South of Beale TONIGHT!

Before I go into the details on our party tonight, I want to send out a big congrats to our winner of last week's "Make Mark Eat It" contest - memknitmafia! I'll announce the next contest in a bit.

Tonight we will be hitting the south main district and rolling into South of Beale a little after 5pm. If you've always wondered what a gastropub is like, tonight is the night to check it out. Why, you ask? Here's why:

• Tonight they are running an extended happy hour until 7:30. That means that happy hour drink prices will be in effect.
• For those of you that have downloaded our mobile app, you will receive 50% off any item on the "Bites" menu.
• The first 5 people that show up with a friend will get a MarksMenus t-shirt.

Come on down and say hello!

Based on last week's Make Mark Eat It contest, I've decided to alter the rules just slightly. Our first winner pointed out that maybe giving them a week's notice for the lunch meet might be better, so I'm gonna give the people what they want. The two dishes in this week's competition are as follows:

• "The Shag" - I absolutely LOVE bananas, so I'm really eager to check this one out.
• Tamales - I have been looking for an excuse to visit this place.

The winning dish will be decided by the number of comments that each dish receives between now and Friday, July 16 at midnight. I will pick two users from the comments on the winning dish and take them out to lunch on Saturday, July 24.

So that's it! Add you comments and I hope to see a bunch of you tonight at South of Beale!

Make Mark EAT IT!

First, I would like to thank everyone that said hello to me during the Trolley Tour. I bought a bunch of free beer for people and got to meet some of our best fans.

Today I would like to announce another contest - Make Mark Eat It!

Here's how it works: I'll list 2 dishes that I have never tried before. The dish that gets the best reviews between now and Friday, July 9 will be the dish that I order on Saturday, July 10 and post my review on MarksMenus.com. In addition, 2 lucky users that posted a review of the winning dish will join me for lunch. The only stipulation is that you have to order the same dish.

Dish 1: BBQ Beef Bologna from The BBQ Shop
Dish 2: The Maximus from Republic Coffee

Ok - so get to commenting!

Be sure that you have a valid email address listed in your profile, because that is how we will be contacting you.

If you miss out on this one, be sure to join us on Monday, July 12 at South of Beale for our tweetup!