The twentyfive:thirtyfive Formula

After several years of working on twentyfive:thirtyfive we thought that we should explain a little bit about how we decide which places make it onto our site.

In order to explain this we have created The twentyfive:thirtyfive Formula.

Value: The overall perception of whether something is “Worth It”

Quality: A key factor regarding the quality of something is whether or not it would stand up to competition if it were in a different city. Just because something is the “best” in (Your City Here), does not necessarily mean that it is actually high quality. For example, Antico Pizza is not just “great pizza for Atlanta”, it would be considered great pizza if it were in any city – including NYC and Chicago.  We not only consider the absolute quality of the product but also whether or not it consistently delivers the same quality on repeat visits.

Experience: This is a combination of several factors including the service that you receive as well as the atmosphere.  For example, a beautiful sit-down restaurant with excellent service is virtually always a higher quality experience than a food truck where you are eating out of a paper plate while standing in a parking lot. This factor is sometimes under-appreciated by places but it is nearly as important as the quality. A great tasting meal is ruined by a rude waiter and makes it highly unlikely that you will return there again.  Additionally, we love aesthetics and design (do not read “fancy” or “expensive”) and that factor in and of itself heightens our overall impression.  Basically, did you have an enjoyable time while you were there and was it something that you will remember?

Cost: This is pretty self-explanatory, the more expensive it is, the higher our expectations.  We also don’t want to pay brick-and-mortar prices for food trucks and we don’t want to pay restaurant prices for pop-up dinners and supper clubs.

Effort: This is the overall energy expenditure that you exert to eat this meal. We factor in the length of time it takes to arrive at a place, the amount of time you have to wait, how far out of the way a place is, how comfortable is it while you wait, etc…