74 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • MAY 2, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
dining out
This Astoria-founded app
lets you map your meals
BY CLAIRE LEADEN
We’ve all been there: just casually
scrolling through Instagram, when
our fi nger pauses mid-air at the most
mouthwatering, cheese-drenched
appetizer or chocolate-dripping dessert.
We screenshot it, or save it to
Instagram Collections, and then kind
of forget about it — no matter how
badly we want to eat it.
But Astoria resident Luiggi Pera and
his business partner Gennadii Ivanov
are changing the foodie game with their
new geotag-based app for mapping,
tracking and discovering new foods,
Popcity, now available in the Apple App
Store (and soon to come for Android).
A perhaps unlikely app developer
with no background in tech, Pera
worked as a lawyer for a big NYC bank
but was eating all over the New York
food scene in his spare time. He used
search services like Yelp and Zomato to
fi nd new grub, but was frustrated that
he couldn’t fi nd a way to save an exact
meal to look back on. Th us the idea for
Popcity was born.
Since Pera was unfamiliar with the
space, he went to a startup event where
he met Ivanov, who wanted to built
an app, but didn’t know exactly what.
Ivanov always felt strongly that mapping
and location features could be utilized
more.
Th eir fi rst idea was a geotag social network,
but just as the two started gathering
funds from family and friends and
looking into next steps, Pera’s son was
born prematurely. And Snapchat came
out with its Snap Map feature — which
practically mimicked the app they had
in mind.
Pera took some time to be with his family,
and the two joined forces again about
a year later (with a healthy son), to “do it
smarter this time,” Pera said. Th ey conducted
surveys on what categories this
kind of mapping service would work best
for, and found that people overwhelmingly
wanted to use it for food (as opposed to
dating or discounts, for example).
Th ey offi cially launched in January
2019 and have over 2,000 users, including
trusted foodie infl uencers like @thehungryturban
and @brooklyn_eats_world.
Unlike services like Foursquare and
Yelp, Popcity is not based on restaurant
reviews but rather based on specific
dishes and photos. So if you see something
delectable on Instagram, you can
copy the photo and location link, open
it in Popcity and save it to your individual
“map.” Once in Popcity, the photos
will let you know how far away in walking
distance you are from each meal, and
if you’re around the city, will also send
you notifi cations if you’re especially close
to something. Plus, it keeps all of your
desired eats and drinks in one place, so
you can just scroll through the pictures in
Photo courtesy of Popcity
your map the next time you don’t know
where to go for dinner.
“What we’re doing is focusing on
independent food experiences,” Pera
explained. “Sure, you can fi nd a restaurant
on your Popcity map, but what
you’re fi nding really is the individual
meals someone may have taken a picture
of. So this specifi c croissant, salad, etc. …
we’re using that as our focal point when
you’re looking for food.”
Pera has lived in Astoria since 2015,
and the company is offi cially based there
as well. He said our food-centric neighborhood
played a huge role in the app’s
development.
“It’s Astoria; what’s not to love?” he said.
“You have a lot more going on here in
terms of diverse food. Here you have wellknown,
good cuisine, where in the rest
of New York you’re getting lots of turnover.”
As for Pera’s favorite food items in
Astoria? He listed the chocolate chip walnut
cookie from Chip, gnocchi di patate
from Vite, and QWNS Cafe’s blueberry
lemon ginger muffi n.
Popcity is only working in NYC as of
now, but the team has been meeting with
contacts in other cities with potential for
expansion. And though he said startup
life holds a lot of pressure in itself, Pera
doesn’t regret leaving law behind at all.
“I’m looking forward to the point where
we can have an offi ce, provide jobs I’m
proud of,” he said. “I can’t wait for what’s
to come.”
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2019
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