Qype - Live and tell

If you’re stuck for ideas for who nominate in our Hidden Gem awards then you might want to take a look at this article that appeared in today’s Guardian, in which a group of food writers recommend “the best independent cafes, snack shops and delis in cities around Britain”.

As our Hidden Gem awards are all about celebrating local, independent businesses then this list might get you in the mood for nominating some of your own right here on Qype, (like the Breakfast Club, pictured above, which makes the Guardian’s list and has already been nominated in the HGs).

You can find out more about the Hidden Gems right here, or you can check out the Qype Groups for the awards here.

This week, in our regular rummage through the choicest snippets from our band of happy Qypers, we go from Andi Peters to Japanese school boys in seven easy steps.

Our favourite comparison of the week comes from riccardiniho in his review of the ’soulless’ Ha Ha Bar near Victoria: “Andi Peters’ tank top is trendier than this place,” (thanks for giving us the excuse to post this picture riccardiniho).

While the most verbose, erudite and slightly daft sentence of the week has to be awarded to Paulo Costaferrata for his review of Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club in Manchester: “I’ll stick with a beer, ‘margherita con bufala’ and the confluence of poly rhythmic and swung syncopated swing beats singing 3/4 bits into my ear ends.”

Believe it or not things get weirder than ‘ear ends’ when we take a trip up to Edinburgh and Guy’s review of the apparently well-named Elephants Bagels: “Well, if you like bagels, that’s a good start. If you like elephants that’s pretty good too, cause you get plenty of both here.” Now that’s what you call a niche market.

Our most surreal foody comment of the week has to be androt’s summation of his Italian meal in Lavendar Hill: “…the lasagne was lacking a lasagne.” Now we’re not certain, but we think there may be grounds for a complaint in there somewhere.

If you’ve been to see Sweeney Todd at the cinema recently then Rossanne’s comment about a butchers in Bristol may ring true: “My, there are some nice people who spend their days cutting up flesh.”

It was Valentines day last week of course, and our favourite loved up quote came from BushGirl in her review of the L’Etranger Restaurant on Gloucester Road: “My boyfriend is wonderful in many ways, but he is also a bit of an idiot.” All together now: aaaahh.

And, finally, if you’d like to know which place on Qype is “like a Japanese school boy’s wet dream” then you’ll have to read Kate’s review of this shop.

You might have noticed that we’re a bit obsessed with seeking out cool, independent places here at Qype. We really believe that finding a great, local place to shop, eat, drink, or stay can really make your day, so with that in mind we have created the Hidden Gem Awards.

Simply put, we wanted to find a way of recognising and rewarding all those places which we love. This isn’t just another ‘best restaurant’ or ‘coolest club’ thing though, we really want to discover those places that make your life better, the places you go to cheer yourself up, and the people that make them.

To kick things off we’re letting you nominate your favourite spots using Qype tags. All you need to do is check out the categories below and just attach the relevant tags to your nominated places (you can nominate as many places as you like, and if the business you want to nominate isn’t already on Qype then you can add it). And of course you can use your review to tell us why your favourite place deserves an award!

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll compile all the nominated places before we come back with shortlists for all the categories so you can vote for your favourites. Then comes the exciting bit: a glitzy awards ceremony to held in London later this year!

So start thinking about the best places you know, the ones you go back to again and again and get nominating!

Most kid friendly place Tag it with: ‘kid friendly’

Anywhere that welcomes the little ones (and we don’t mean Hobbits). Whether it’s a fantastic adventure playground, a restaurant that doesn’t turn its nose up at the nippers, or a shop with a cracking crèche.

Best place for a Sunday roast. Tag it with: ‘sunday roast’

It’s Sunday, you’re too hung over to attempt a roast yourself and your mum lives miles away. Who do you turn to? Who does the best roasties, the greatest gravy, and rhubarb crumble and custard to die for?

Best place to laze away a sunny afternoon Tag it with: ’sunny afternoon’

Yes, we nicked this one from the Kinks, but Ray Davies knew what he was talking about. If you’ve got a favourite secluded sanctuary, a beautiful beer garden, or even just a bench with a breathtaking view, we want to know about it.

Your local hero Tag it with: ‘local hero’

More often than not it’s the people who make the place, so this award is for those unsung champions who you couldn’t live without. Who’s the shopkeeper, the hairdresser, the barman, the waitress or the lollipop lady who makes your day?

Best place you can still smoke Tag it with: ‘still smoke’

On July 1st 2007 finding somewhere to enjoy a sneaky smoke became a whole lot harder, but there’s still a few precious spots left where you can enjoy a ciggy in comfort. So where are they?!

Most useful place in your address book Tag it with: ‘useful’

Whether it’s the plumber who will come out the same day, the café that knows how you like your eggs, the bookshop with the best selection, or classiest tailor in town. We want to know who takes pride of place in your little black book.

2008 Hidden Gem Award Tag it with: ‘hidden gem’

The big one. Quite simply the best local, independent business in the UK. Any of the businesses nominated in the other categories can go up for this award but if there’s somewhere that doesn’t fit into those categories that you think is especially awesome then here’s where you make sure they get recognised.

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed something a little different about Qype today. That’s because we’ve just launched a brand new version of the site that, as well as looking shiny and new, also contains a bunch of new tools and tricks designed to make the Qype experience even cooler than it was before.

The best way to get a quick acquainted with the new Qype is to go and watch a few of the videos, which demonstrate you some of the major features we’ve added.

These include the Map View option you’ll find whenever you do a search. Click on that tab and you’ll find a draggable, zoomable map which automatically shows the top 10 places you’re looking for and updates every time you change the refine the area you’re looking at. It’s like Qypeing on steroids…with a map!

We’ve also souped up our search, so you can now look for places using the name of an area, a town, a postcode or street name. As long as you spell it right, Qype should be able to find it!

Something we’re really excited about in this new version is the ability to add YouTube videos to your reviews. All you have to do is grab the url of your movie and then click the ‘Add a Youtube video’ button and your clip will appear at the bottom of your review.

Check out some of the videos that have already been added here, here, and here.

You’ll notice that we’ve also added Guides to Qype. Guides are your personal collections of the best and most useful places you know, and of course you can browse other people’s guides to get information whether it’s where to find the top spots for sushi or even the best restaurants to take your Valentine.

We’ve also added Local Chat discussion boards to every single town and city on Qype.co.uk. Just click through to your area and look on the right hand side of the page for a link to see who’s talking in your neighbourhood.

There’s tons of other little improvements and tweaks in this new version of Qype that we don’t have the space to go into here, but the best way of finding them is to go out and use the site. Get involved in the discussions, start creating your personal guides, upload a few movies and photos and just have fun with it.

If you have any questions about how things work then you can leave a comment here or just message me via my profile.

A quick rundown of some of our favourite tidbits from around the Qype community this week:

daveparce1 raises an important question regarding chemists and small spherical lollies:

“Good little pharmacy on the North End Road, quick and friendly staff, and they do a good sideline in chupa chups, which I’ve never understood but chemists always love to sell.”

While mr_bubascus makes a good point about the effect that a liberal broadsheet’s office can have on any nearby pub:

“The clientèle can occasionally be a bit media-luvvy, but thats the price you pay for having the Guardian down the road…”

Meanwhile, MissB finds a fatal flaw with one of the starters in a Manchester restaurant:

“Over half of us was appalled with our starters, the garlic bread had no sign of garlic in it!”

And the quote that made us laugh the most this week comes from Paddyman’s review of the legendary Brick Lane Biegle Bakery in London’s east end:

“I never have the horror of getting home, as I live round the corner. That both delights me and horrifies me, since I know a dozen tight jeaned floppy hair wallies who would suck a gigantic mountain of Foxtons shaft just to set foot in my domain, You lose, fools.”

Genius.

We also have to extend a special mention to Qyper drunken505spacecowboy2001 for coming up with what must be the longest Qype username so far (unless someone out there knows different?).

If you’ve spotted any nuggets of wisdom on Qype this week let us know in the comments or just send me a message.