People were always asking newspaper food writer Marta Lane where they should go to eat.
Now there’s an app for that, for both iPhone and Android phones.
Lane initially wrote “Tasting Kauai: Restaurants — An Insider’s Guide to Eating Well on the Garden Island” in October 2014 as a restaurant guidebook.
She had long wanted an app version of the book, but her research showed that getting one created could cost $60,000.
Enter Zendy Labs, also based in Kapaa.
“Tasting Kauai” was a first for Zendy owner Yacine Merzouk, and Lane is especially excited about the filters the app offers to help users find what they seek.
“If you’re staying on the east side and you’re vegan, you search by those two filters,” making easier work of scouting dining options. Other filters include breakfast, lunch, dinner, gluten-free and vegetarian, as well as regions of Kauai.
Lane’s “slippah rating” describes attire levels appropriate for each venue. One slippah means you can go “in a sarong and bikini top,” while the highest three-slippah rating means you wear something nice, she said.
Writing a restaurant guidebook can be treacherous territory, given the number of restaurants that show so much promise and yet close suddenly.
“Last time we updated it, a week later one of our favorite restaurants closed,” Lane said.
The book currently sells for $15.99 locally and on Amazon.com, “but we’re trying to raise the price because it’s full color,” she said.
The e-book costs $7.99 and is updated annually. The newly released app costs $9.99, “but the app is going to be updated constantly,” she said. …
Hawaii’s culinary chops will receive more national TV attention this week.
Chef de cuisine Shaymus Alwin of Azure Restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian will appear Thursday on “Beat Bobby Flay.” Alwin will take on Jeremy Sewall, a restaurateur from Boston, in an effort to win Flay’s crown.
Alwin’s 15 years of culinary experience includes serving as executive chef at Bistro Catering, sous-chef for The Bistro at Century Center and sous-chef at Chai’s Island Bistro.
In addition to tutelage under luminary Hawaii chef Jon Matsubara, Alwin also is among Hawaii culinarians who have studied under the renowned Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in California.
The episode, “Riding the Wave,” will debut on Food Network at 7 p.m., with subsequent reruns.
Send restaurant news and notes to erika@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4303. Follow her on Twitter @eriKaengle.
