What's on the menu? This app connects foodies, cuisine

CORY WILKINS

Cory Wilkins, one of Charlotte’s top cuisine advocates, has designed Ovedere, an app that connects communities to restaurateurs.

Cory Wilkins is embracing his latest food venture with the Ovedere app, designed to connect communities to restaurateurs across the globe.

The platform, designed partially by Claude, an artificial intelligence assistant created by Anthropic, aids users on the hunt for new food spots by mapping out their distance from eateries bookmarked on the app. Users can create lists of their favorite food spots to share with friends or tabulate a queue of restaurants they're looking to try while out of town.

“The app name is a play on words, referencing how southerners say ‘over there’ because the app itself was a place-saving app,” Wilkins said. “It came about because I do a lot of traveling and I like to eat at a bunch of different restaurants when I travel and there was just no good way to keep all of that organized for the restaurants and things to do and kind of map out an actual efficient way to visit all of these restaurants and things to do.

“Instead of continuing to use bookmarking on Google Maps and all of these different platforms, I decided to build it because I do have a background in software development.” 

Wilkins previously worked at several major companies including OpenSpace and SignUpGenius but is now a full-time content creator. He said digital influencers were in mind when he was building out the app. 

“I focus heavily on a lot of restaurants here in Charlotte,” he said. “I get asked constantly what are my favorite places. Where should I go? Where should I go eat? Where should I go celebrate a birthday? This allows me to, instead of spending a lot of time responding to that question over and over, I can just send them my map.

“They can filter through it. They can find their own places. And it also helps too, just with overall branding. Because it's hard for people to easily find restaurants using social media, just because nobody wants to sit there and watch, you know, three hours of video just to find a spot to have their birthday dinner.” 

Wilkins runs several social media accounts raging from Tha Daily Special, which focuses on food and grocery deals to EATBLKCLT, an online group that hosts an annual week long food festival and digital directory that highlights and supports Black-owned restaurants, food trucks and culinary businesses.

Soon, the Ovedere app will feature a similar nod to the Queen City’s Black-owned food venues. 

“I’ll have one here in Charlotte soon that is for just Black-owned restaurants and Black-owned businesses if people want to use that,” he said. 

The app also allows users to follow others as they spotlight restaurants for momentous occasions, family dinners or casual stroll through a new city. 

“One of my favorite features is the day planner, which allows you to take things that you have on your list and actually map out a day or multiple days, which is great for traveling,” Wilkins said. “You can literally add five or six restaurants to the day planner and it will then help you to navigate and map out what's the most efficient way to go to all these places. It’ll literally put them on the list. 

“It’ll tell you the distance between them, whether it's better to walk or drive and it'll show you the route on the map. … 

“With these maps, you can very easily share them out to your friends. You can make your map public or private and same with the day plans as well.” 

Ovedere is available free on both Apple and Google Play stores, thanks in part to AI. 

“It sped up the time that it would have taken me to build this app and other apps that I'm working on exponentially,” Wilkins said. “It would have taken me probably eight months to a year to do by myself.

“I was able to knock it out in a month and a half, two months and that’s including design, framework, applying to get it into the App Store, Apple, all of that.” 

Wilkins acknowledged his background in software development has been “key” to a smooth rollout. 

“If you don't have that background, it can be a little intimidating just with some of the terminology and just especially when it comes to security and security risk and things that it might not naturally just implement,” he said. 

Wilkins said despite technology’s role in making the platform a reality, his overall goal is to encourage community. 

“I want to cover everyone,” he said. “If you want to go out, you’ll be able to find restaurant deals and specials on Tha Daily Special site. If you want to cook, you’ll be able to go and find the best grocery deals on the site. I’ll be dropping also just Charlotte guides in a blog like style in addition to public shops that you should go to or like listicles and things like that.

“So, giving people a good overall resource just to go to and save money regardless of what they're doing, whether it’s restaurants or cooking and just place to, you know, build community. Cause I do want to eventually do some events with the grub club and things like that and just bring people together.” 

Wilkins has already spun off several partnerships with shops in the area like Seemingly Overzealous and 77 & Belle, a Black-owned coffee shop.  

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