Spoon Me

In a world filled with Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter friends, the UrbanSpoon site seems so inevitable. So why fight it? It's a great place to swap zingers with your other foodie friends. My theory is that it's way more accurate than Zagat or Metromix at gauging the unfiltered buzz factor for any given place. (Notwithstanding, I'm sure Alpana's career is safe.)

My inner geek especially marvels at all stats that the Spoon's computer brain is capable of giving us:

• The most popular Chicago restaurant is itty bitty, crazy noisy Avec.
• The Brazilian steakhouse concept (and the cardiology business) is safe in Chicago, with two spots on the top ten.
• Plenty of folks are hanging on to their jobs and mortgages long enough to put Alinea at #5

You can find me there as DirtyDish.