New apps beef up food explorations

New players in the restaurant-finder app game have launched in the Hawaii market and each brings something different to the table. Neither is supported by advertising sales.

We Share Hawaii, by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, shares the recommendations of nearly 100 “curators,” including chefs.

“What we wanted to do is develop something that’s inherently Hawaii, for Hawaii’s communities,” for sharing of their favorite foods and restaurants, said Charlene Chan, director of communications for the tourism authority. “Everybody eats, we all love to eat here, so we thought it would be a nice way of connecting through food.”

At the moment 37 chefs from all around the state — those you hear about all the time, as well as the lesser- publicized — recommend their favorite “Hawaii-on-a-plate” dishes, neighborhood restaurants, venues to satisfy sweet cravings, “must-have sips” and places for go-to snacks or quick bites.

The same is true of farmers and makers of cheese, chocolate and other ag-based products; Mix Masters, or sommeliers, mixologists and other beverage industry insiders; artists, mostly musicians at the moment; community leaders of all stripes; and tastemakers, a broad category including alohawear designers, pageant winners and bloggers.

“We’re still adding people on little by little,” Chan said.

Users can search by island, food, drink or curator category; see which recommended locations are nearby; add a place to a wish list; and “like” a venue with a heart symbol. Most of the interactivity takes place on the We Share Hawaii Facebook page.

The app is state-funded through the tourism authority, and the $177,150 cost also supports Facebook Live videos archived on the We Share Hawaii page, Chan said.

Archived events feature Hokule‘a crew member Gary Yuen; Lyndsey Haraguchi- Nakayama, co-owner of Hanalei Taro & Juice Co. and Ho‘opula­pula Haraguchi Rice Mill on Kauai; and designer Kuhao Zane, of Sig Zane Kaiao studio, among many others.

On Wednesday at 6 p.m. another Facebook Live event will star Colin Hazama, executive chef at the Royal Hawaiian, and Shin Ho, operations manager for Ho Farms.

We Share Hawaii is free for download via the App Store, and the Android version will be available later this month.

Kynbo comes to town

Hawaii is the second launch market for Kynbo, a mobile app that is free for restaurants to join and users to download, said CEO and co-founder Thao Doan. Kynbo is based in Truckee, Calif., and its first market was Lake Tahoe.

Users can use the app to search in many ways, including by ingredient. Say you’re ono for bacon. Type it in, and participating restaurants serving dishes with bacon show up. As of a week ago almost 50 restaurants were in the app, Doan said, explaining that Kynbo has hired veterans and single moms to upload the menus.

“There is no public venting,” as on other apps, she said. Kynbo allows users to give the restaurateurs a public thumbs-up and offer private feedback.

Doan’s family came to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975 to escape the war. “For my parents to find work and raise seven kids in a new country was not easy,” she said, adding that her mother cooked at one of the first Vietnamese restaurants in California.

She lived for many years on Oahu and still has family here.

“Being back on the islands and meeting so many mom-and-pop-owned restaurants reminds me of my mom and dad’s days in the restaurant business,” she said. “It is truly one of the reasons why we want to make it free for any restaurant to be on Kynbo even if they don’t have money to advertise. And even if they have some ad budget and want to use Kynbo’s push notification modules, at $35 (a month) they can do both.”

Upgraded membership enables a restaurant to send out push notifications of specials on menus, for happy hour, an entertainer playing that night, etc.

Kynbo is free via the App Store and Google Play. Learn more about it at kynbo.com.

Send restaurant news and notes to erika@staradvertiser.com or call 529-4303. Follow Erika Engle on Twitter @eriKaengle.