There’s just something about food that brings people together. At least that’s what Dishcrawl.com’s founder and CEO Tracy Lee believes. It’s this belief that’s behind her company.
Dishcrawl.com has been in existence for nearly two years now. Lee, a Cupertino native launched the endeavor at 27.
“We take people on food adventures,” she says. “We build community using food to do that.”
The concept is simple: four restaurants in one night, lead by a local resident. The local resident becomes the “ambassador” to their city and serve as both the drive behind the local event as well as the hosts.
The 27-year-old is as "local as they come," she says. She attended school at , Cupertino Junior High and . She later attended San Jose State University and received her degree in marketing, which she used in the corporate world. It was in 2011 that she decided she wanted to make her mark.
"I just decided, I’m just going to take over the world," she says and she launched Dishcrawl.com.
The next event is in Los Gatos Jan. 24, and there are four tickets left on the site.
“We are doing some really amazing restaurants in Los Gatos,” Lee says.
l, Root Stock, and The WOW Truck will all be part of the night’s adventure.
“What is community these days?" she says. "It's so lost these days, that whole concept of getting out and getting to know your neighbors is lost with all this online stuff. This has an offline component.”
Dishcrawl.com has, over the course of almost two years spread across the country in more than 20 cities. It’s main demographic is adults 30-55 and about 35 percent have children.
“When you get to that age, you’re not going out to get drunk on pub crawls,” Lee says. “There’s a hunger from people to explore different restaurants.”
The events are done on a monthly basis, with the launch of Campbell and Los Gatos late last year.
“I had been dying to do Campbell and Los Gatos," Lee says. "Campbell has just so many amazing little restaurants. Such a cool up and coming place. It just felt right and was only a matter of time.”
In Campbell, local foodies partook in wine and donut pairing, courtesy of and , specials at the , a chance to take in the food truck phenomena with the Vietnamese food O' Mi Ninja and cap off the night with El Guapos.
Both the Campbell event and the Los Gatos one filled up, with about 60 people at each.
There are a few more events coming up in the next few weeks, including a Downtown San Jose Jaunt on Jan. 31, a Singles Dishcrawl in Japantown SJ Jan. 8 and for the first time Asian Culinary Journey in Cupertino on Feb. 15.
The last event will be a little different from the other dishcrawl events.
"In Cupertino, we are going to have to drive around to places," she says. "We did this earlier in Sacramento and it worked out really well. I’m thinking even in Campbell, it might be compelling to drive from place to place for the next one. We just need another ambassador to step up."
