Restaurant discounts from savored.com first became available 2 ½ years ago in ten major U.S. cities.
This spring, the service pushed out from Manhattan to include “the vibrant dining scenes of Westchester, Long Island and New Jersey,” says savored.com’s chief revenue officer, Mike Deluca.
The free service is not just another daily deal craze. “It’s for diners looking for restaurants with the very best prices,” says Deluca. “It’s an opportunity for restaurants to fill tables at times that otherwise wouldn’t be filled.”
For example, a number of discounted tables might be available at your location of choice on weeknights, early evenings, or upon a last minute cancellation.
“For our members, it gives them the opportunity to try out and go to great restaurants they wouldn’t otherwise be able to go to,” Deluca says.
Unlike competitors such as Groupon, Living Social and restaurant.com, which sell gift certificates at a reduced rate, savored.com is not voucher-based. You don’t wave a coupon at the wait staff when you arrive.
Instead, when you reserve through savored.com, the reservation is transmitted electronically and recorded by the restaurant along with the percentage that the will be taken off the customer’s entire bill for food and beverages. Yes, that includes alcohol.
Once the restaurant staff is trained to handle a savored.com reservation, “It’s a seamless and discrete experience for both you and the restaurant,” says Deluca.
On the site, visitors will find a list of member restaurants, along with capsule descriptions, ZAGAT ratings, recommendations from savored.com members, plus links to maps, menus and more. Reservation dates are available one month in advance.
Some establishments offer the same percent reduction no matter what time the table is available. Others make the deepest discounts available at the start or towards the end of service, with lesser price cuts during the prime hours of seven or eight o’clock.
Members can also download mobile apps that allow them to access the service on their iPhone or Android.
Savored.com already has nearly 20,000 New Jersey member diners and 24 participating NJ restaurants:
These include Café Monet in Milburn, Moonshine in Millburn, Mehndi in Morristown, Epernay in Montclair, DaFilippo in Somerville, Calandra’s Italian Village in Caldwell, Chengdu 46 in Clifton, Saluté in Montclair, and Bernardsville’s Sette Cucina Italiana, one of the site’s most highly rated establishments.
A slight grumble: On the savored.com homepage, New Jersey does not have its own freestanding category or pull-down. Instead it is listed as a "neighborhood" of New York City. From a certain point of view, perhaps, but the site could and should do better.
Still, Deluca is enthusiastic about the expanded venture.
“There are so many nice neighborhood restaurants, as well as larger established restaurants," he says, "that we’re really excited to continue to push into New Jersey.”
SUZANNE ZIMMER LOWERY is a food writer, pastry chef and culinary instructor at a number of New Jersey cooking schools. Find out more about her at suzannelowery.com.