Ability to suggest Gastro Obscura entries.#135

I enjoy adding entries to Atlas Obscura, and have a list of foods that are not currently on Gastro Obscura and would make great additions!

Are there any plans to allow users to submit Gastro Obscura entries the same way that they can submit Atlas Obscura places?

Hi Robert,

I passed your note onto Alex Mayyasi, our Gastro Obscura editor, and wanted to share his response:

When we launched Gastro Obscura and the Foods database (https://www.atlasobscura.com/unique-food ) in 2017, it worked just like the Atlas. So that meant that readers and travelers like you could add Foods to the database. We got some great additions! I particularly love Persian ice cream sandwiches from listeningdaisy.

But we faced a problem: Writing a definitive account of a food or drink required a lot of research, which wasn’t fun or achievable for most readers. So we stopped accepting suggestions for Foods. Instead we encourage folks to add to Gastro Obscura’s guide to places to eat and drink, which is part of the Atlas (https://www.atlasobscura.com/cool-places-to-eat ). You can do that via the Add a Place form (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/new ).

The Foods database is still around, and we recently started adding to it again. But now the entries are by food writers and journalists from around the world, with each writeup featuring original reporting and expert recommendations.

I so, so appreciate your enthusiasm for Gastro Obscura and your desire to suggest or add Foods. But for these reasons, and a few that I haven’t bored you with here, I encourage you to instead suggest food-related Places for the Atlas. I think our Places to Eat guide is already awesome, but has only scratched the surface. Together, I’m confident we can build something really special that changes how people see Food and even the world. I know this is grandiose, but it’s true!

tl;dr We don’t have plans to accept suggestions for Gastro Obscura’s Foods database, but we’d love, love, love suggestions of unique and amazing restaurants, bars, etc.

I think that the taste atlas filled this niche very nicely, id love to also add to the food database but gave up basically.