One recent Tuesday, when two of Love Park's three lunchtime trucks did not show because of rain, you could have checked Chowspotter to learn that the Foo Truck would be out there, slinging burritos.
Also in that online space is RoamingHunger.com , a national site that has a Philadelphia edition.
The Food Network, whose stock-in-trade is shows that take food personalities on the road, is out with a free iPhone/iPad app called On the Road. It helps you get the chefs and the restaurants straight. Was that Guy Fieri at Tony Luke's for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? Nope. It was Marc Summers on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.
The app runs down all 3,000 restaurants and foods seen on Food Network shows and breaks them down by chef name, city name, and restaurant name. It also lets you build a road trip.
How about a cup of coffee from an independent shop? Techie/wine seller Greg Cohen - who last year came out with OysterGuru to help people find bivalves - is out with CoffeeGuru, a $1.99 iPhone app whose data are hand-curated.
Cohen says he spent three months contacting more than 3,000 coffeehouses and plans to update the information in real time. There are 70 Philly-area coffeehouses in it now, and the search allows you to find those coffeehouses that roast their own beans or use Fair or Direct Trade roasters. Users can also submit reviews.
Starbucks, Panera, and other chains are not included by design because Cohen wants to point people to the "third-wave specialty-coffee movement."
Contact Michael Klein at mklein@philly.com.
