A DUMBO marketing firm has answered one of the most pressing questions asked by Brooklyn foodies: ¿Dónde están los tacos?
The brilliant minds at Big Spaceship are behind Taco Finder, an iPhone app that leads hungry users on taco-hunting expeditions.
Mexican food fanatics open the app, select a local taco stand, and follow the arrow on the screen until they’re devouring the Mexican food of their dreams.
“We wanted to make going out for tacos into an adventure,” said senior designer Valerie Gnaedig. “If I want to find a taco, it will be a taco wonderland — with more places popping up along the way.”
As users inch closer to their destination, Taco Finder uses a global positioning system to determine how many more feet they must travel before reaching their taco target.
Jamie Kosoy, the firm’s technology director, claims the app is more “divining rod” than roadmap, providing taco lovers with no addresses or instructions. All that Mexican food fanatics can see is a wooden arrow that twists and turns, pointing them toward the tortilla-wrapped objects of their desire.
Big Spaceship created the free app as an internal project to satiate workers’ late-night cravings. But it was such a hit that they bestowed it upon the rest of the taco-craving world via Apple’s App Store last fall.
Already, 20-guacamole fiends have sung the praises of the taco tracker.
“How did I ever find tacos before this prescient little program?” said Conor O’Hollaren. “What a time to be alive.”
The Odyssean aspect of the software hasn’t stopped the app’s creators from divulging their favorite taco-slinging destinations.
Gnaedig’s secret standby is a little bodega under the Williamsburg Bridge on Broadway called Mexico 2000 Grocery.
Kosoy prefers Tortilleria Mexicana Los Hermanos, an old garage turned tortilla factory in Bushwick.
“Of course, if you’re in the mood for a fun daytime activity, I could give you recommendations,” Gnaedig said. “But it’s more fun to follow an arrow and see where it leads you.”
Kosoy hopes gutsy diners will take Taco Finder to the next level by hopping in a cab with a hunger for adventure (and tacos), but no definitive destination — or mounting an iPhone on a bike and pedaling until they encounter something cooked al pastor.
“This is for the adventurous eater,” he said. “Mostly I just open it up and wander off.”
To download Taco Finder for free, visit http://www.bigspaceship.com/2011/10/hungry-meet-taco-finder/.
Reach Kate Briquelet at kbriquelet@cnglocal.com or by calling her at (718) 260-2511.
