I've returned from Lunch 2.0, hosted today on the roof deck of FamilyOven founder Sean Shadamand's
San Francisco apartment building. In Jamaica they would call it a cold afternoon, but by San Francisco standards, it was sweltering. That was likely more sun than most of the developers in attendance got in a while. The deck was small for the crowd assembled, but it had great views of the Bay. Risotto was maybe not the best lunch choice for a hot day, but the beer was cold.
A crowd of Socializr employees were there—thanks for the bottle opener—along with a handful of guys from Future U.S., a magazine publisher with titles like PC Gamer and Guitar World. Lunch 2.0 creators Mark Jen and Terry Chay (photo below) also showed up. (Update: Terry points out that he and Mark also work at Tagged. Duly noted.) Host FamilyOven launched in beta today and though its name sounds like an Indian restaurant, there's a reason: it's a social networking site based around food. The site prominently features recipes, although I understand future plans include an Evite-style service tailored to dinner parties.
One of the more intriguing ideas I came across was Mobile Hostess, a company in incubation with Originate Labs of San Mateo. Its product, which is not yet on the market, is a system for restaurants to alert waiting diners by SMS when their tables are ready. It has better range than the blinking, vibrating coaster-style system and according to my source, it's also cheaper for the restaurant. For me, it passed one benchmark: I'd use it.
See you at the next one?
