RUNINout, the search engine for "food, fun and fashion," is launching an online food ordering service.
The site allows hungry D.C. residents to search for meals at restaurants in the area, drilling down with deep precision to filter by specific criteria, says founder Chito Peppler.
"Whenever you're looking for that particular dish, food type, ingredient, or even a specific ambiance or environment," RUNINout will help you, Peppler says. The site and mobile app also features a recommendation engine, so if a user expresses preferences for baked, but not fried, chicken, the app may suggest similar dishes at new restaurants. "When I get to a restaurant, I don't always have time to look at the menu, and I find it hard to read," Peppler adds. "We can recommend a dish for you."
The engine gets even more specific: "Say I'm going on a date and I prefer the Dupont area, I'm looking for this particular dish, maybe souvlaki, and I want to drink Peroni. We'll say, 'Hey, you need to go to
Zorba's.'"
Peppler started RUNINout while at George Washington University as part of a class project. After the class ended, while his classmates moved on, he stuck with it.
The site's soon-to-launch online ordering feature competes with established companies like Seamless and with upstarts such as
Crunchbutton, but Peppler thinks there is room for a newcomer. "Compared to most sites, once you get to that Zorba's page, you can't do much sorting. There are hundreds of dishes [to look through.] On our site, you can do that."