Produced by the team at Village Voice, LLC — the publisher of New York Village Voice, Houston Press and SF weekly, among others — Best Of . . . for iPhone and iPod Touch aims to put travelers in touch with the best local spots across the country. Servicing more than 30 metro areas in the U.S., Best Of . . . has taken the lengthy editorial “Best Of” lists created by editors, writers and local experts from Voice publications, local magazines and city guides, and compiled the picks into one handy app.
The picks in Best Of . . . can be accessed by location, narrowing your focus to specific neighborhoods or categories. You can browse the lists of winners, search if you’re looking for a specific locale, or check out the feed section to see what other users are up to. When looking at individual listings, you’ll see the first few lines of the publication’s reasoning for naming the spot a Best Of . . . and the name of the source, along with access to an in-line map.
What I like most about Best Of . . . is its easy accessibility. The design and GUI don’t overwhelm the user with choices, and you can access any of its cities through the drop-down menu. If you sync the app with your Facebook account, you can bookmark businesses you’re interested in for later, share your opinion on a location, or check in to earn badges.
I took a spin through the Chicago listings, and while I agreed with most selections (Best Burger, for one), I was a bit surprised at some of the picks. Not so much in that I prefer X cupcake to the chosen Y (personal taste, you know?), but the pick for Best Comedy Club was quite shocking considering that I had never heard of it (a big feat in a city that holds sketch and improv mainstays Second City and IO, which were nowhere to be found in the app). The source for this result wasn’t one I’d consider prominent in the Windy City, either. Because of this, I think Best Of . . . can be a good jumping off point for what to eat and where to go, but I wouldn’t consider it the final word in unfamiliar territory.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
