Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Patch, A New Place To Check Out Local Food

AOL is popping out Patch Web sites for areas around here, including Ellicott City, Columbia, Elkridge and Laurel.

Patch sites are "hyper-local" Web sites with listings and news.  They also include restaurant reviews, which read -- at least in the Ellicott City Patch that has already gone live -- like blog posts.  In that first Patch, Soo Young Lee is writing up a storm, most recently writing up Shin Chon Garden (recommending the cod fish tang) and explaining many of the Korean-French pastries at Boulangerie.

Click here for a full list of Lee's restaurant reviews.  Watch for the Columbia and other sites to open soon.


5 comments:

Amber Mc said...

While I love their coffee, the sandwiches really are the stars. I recently had their vegetarian breakfast sandwich. Paradise on a plate.

jessiex said...

I'm delighted to see that The Hoco is one of the areas where The Patch is being launched ... with four sites/Patches, no less: Columbia, EC, Elkridge and Savage-Guilford.

The timing couldn't be better. As more and more people orient toward civic journalism and providing content, I think this is a great boon to Howard County.

With HocoMojo's capacity to produce original radio- and TV-like content (heard their hyper-local podcasts or seen some of their YouTube pieces?), hocoblogs aggregating the bloggers, the Twitterers doing their bits and organizations, individuals and governmental bodies stepping more actively into the Web 2.0 space, it looks as though we're developing a nice eco-system of "ground-up" content from and about our community.

I'm also encouraged in that -- I believe -- many people who many not wish to blog, per se, and take on the challenges and challenge of being a blogger, will feel comfortable and confident to post more content on such sites as the various Patches and HocoMojo.com.

indigo_tide said...

Honestly I saw craigslist job postings for The Patch for writers and content producers over the last few months - but I thought it sounded scammy. Glad to hear that may not be the case.

HowChow said...

@Amber - Did you mean to comment on the Sidamo's post?

@Jessiex - And a Patch in Laurel too. It will cover parts of the county.

Brandie said...

Thanks for the note! Sorry about the delayed response. It just so happens that one of my favorite past times is eating ... I'm looking forward to finding new spots on HowChow. Maybe we can do a feature -- found on HowChow? Sounds like a delicious idea.

-brandie @ patch