Provo marketers bring restaurant review videos to the local scene

There’s a new way to discover what’s happening in the Utah County food scene, and the guys behind the endeavor think it’s prr-etty cool.

Provo Restaurant Review, or “PRR”, launched in January and shares elements of the hit Food Network show “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives”, but with an extra helping of unique style–and cats.

Provo Restaurant Review has been an idea in the minds of creator Jon Hammond for quite some time.

“The idea of a restaurant review site has been something I have been toying with since high school. Once YouTube started becoming popular I thought it would be cool to make a ‘Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives’ style of show for the much more local scene.”

It wasn’t until just recently that the idea became possible with the help of co-creators Travis Aldous and Ben Cheng.

“I never did anything with it until I was sitting in my digital marketing class at Market Campus. The founder, Brandon Hassler, told us the best way to really understand what the course covers was to actually apply it to a test website. So right after that class I turned to my friend Travis Aldous who is also in the class and asked him if he wanted to join me in creating a restaurant review site. Ben overheard our conversation and asked if he could join and I just thought ‘the more the merrier.’”

PRR only reviews “any establishment that makes edible matter.” The creators decided to start out in Provo because it’s their home town, and they feel that there is an awesome food scene that isn’t talked about compared to other Utah cities like Salt Lake and Park City.

“We want to find the gems of Provo. Places that people usually drive by on their way to a rotten chain restaurant. Local restaurants have awesome stories and awesome food. I am a huge advocate for independent local restaurants.”

At each restaurant, PRR reviews a list of criteria. These include customer service, wait time, atmosphere, food quality, portion size, price, group size limits, and the restrooms. Each review is accompanied by a video to provide a unique experience not available by just looking up customer reviews. Additionally, each creator provides their own take on their experience in a short review after the video, accompanied by plenty of photos. They also allow readers to provide their own ratings using a unique rating scale, which naturally follows their cat-loving theme:

• Hairball – Stay Away
• Cat nap – It’s Okay, but Nothing to Get Up For
• Cat-tastic- Good, but Nothing to Meow About (Average)
• “Cat-cha” Again – Delish, I’ll Definitely be Back Soon
• PRR-fection! – Prr-ovo’s Best

Of course, there are only so many restaurants in Provo. It won’t be long before the team runs out of options and needs to expand their scope. But don’t worry, they have plenty of ideas.

“We hope to make this much more than just a review blog. We have big ideas like creating foodie groups to meet and eat, contests to get people to try new restaurants, even more interactive videos/content for our fans and incorporating more feature style videos about restaurants, dishes and chefs.”

And, obviously, to eat great food and have tons of fun making videos about it.

 

Provo Restaurant Review is always open to suggestions from local food lovers. Check them out, and send your feedback to provorestaurantreview@gmail.com.

 

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