For fine dining that's as fine as your date, once again the Web may be the place to go before pulling out of the driveway.
Launched in January of this year, DiningCompass.com offers an online guide to just about everything dining has to offer in Nashville...from Chinese takeout to gourmet Mexican popsicles.
Terry Robertson, a native Nashvillian who has spent almost three years designing the on line guide, has 12 years experience in the restaurant industry.
"The Internet should make dining out in Nashville easier - but it hasn't," Robertson says. "Dining Compass tackles the huge jumbled mess of restaurant content on the Web and spins it into something easy-to-navigate and understand."
Robertson said the site will allow customers to quickly check each day what specials a particular restaurant might have, or to search for a new restaurant in their neighborhood.
"There are dozens of search categories that we have broken down into five different search engines," Robertson said.
Customers can conduct searches by restaurant name, by area of town, by cuisine, by features or by new listings.
"We’ll continue to add categories as tastes and needs change," Robertson promised.
If, for instance, customers are looking for a Japanese restaurant, or one that offers Wi-Fi, they can quickly find it. Perhaps users may be interested in a late-night pizza place, or one that caters to the GLBT community. For now, customers can search for one option at any given time.
"They can find it here, and the info is always in the same place." Robertson said. "Consistency is a key factor for our site."
The site is feature rich – from providing driving directions and times to major Nashville tourist spots, to letting restaurants post external links that give customers the chance to gather even more information about their potential dining spot – with prices ranging from $40 to $120 a month.
For restaurants looking to promote their dining options, DiningCompass.com offers three choices:
1. The $40-a-month option gets a restaurant a basic listing that includes a welcome page with external links to driving directions, e-mail and a location's Web site, listing in multiple search areas, the choice of three color schemes and more.
2. The $80-a-month option is an enhanced listing and offers the above features, plus pages dedicated solely to online menus and special promotions, such as events or coupons that users can download and print.
3. The premium listing costs $120-a-month and offers restaurants the ability to have five Web page types dedicated to the above content, plus links to reviews from Nashville's top food critics, and extra-large photos. Restaurants can also post their daily specials, soups and other messages, and they can make immediate changes to this information when needed.
For more information visit www.diningcompass.com , call 615-727-4533 or e-mail info@diningcompass.com.
