Dishcrawl is back in Portland to stroll through Alberta once more. If you don’t know what a Dishcrawl is, it’s an organized trek through foodie territory for an evening of noshing and discovery. Dishcrawlers spend about $26 and their evening at each of up to four eateries to taste gastronomic creations of local chefs.

Tickets are sold out, by the way. I missed my chance to snag some, too. For those of you reading this who have tickets– lucky!!

Tracy Lee (aka @ladyleet), founder of Dishcrawl, has built such a great brand out of this idea that brings foodies and their community chefs together. While the chefs and restaurants involved get quite a bit of props across social media and the Dishcrawl network, I’m wondering how else other content can enhance the user experiences for the chefs and eateries that they feature.

So many opportunities to leverage social proof.

Watching people eat interesting food makes me incredibly hungry. It’s a mix of envy, ravenousness, and wonder. It only gets worse when you hear the sounds of eating as well– plates and silverware coming into contact, sizzles and pops of savory dishes, and the splashes and swirls of beverages being toasted and downed.

Surprisingly, most post-Dishcrawl content focuses mainly on photographs. Don’t get me wrong, the photos that they take are great. You really get to see the food from great angles, as well as get the feel for the ambiance of the restaurants. Watching happy people enjoy food makes readers happy as well. I’d like to think so at least… I know I smile when I see photos of someone noshing on something amazing.

These photos get a lot of mileage. Not only are they shared on the Dishcrawl blog, but also on Twitter and Facebook, where millions of others could hypothetically take a look at a crawl they’ve missed in a city that they’d like to explore someday.

They’ve got their web content schedule on lockdown. The photos from current events are always neatly posted, letting you almost feel like you’ve got a part of the food coma hangover that the attendees had. The updates and content never feel stale or neglected. With healthy demand for future crawls, there never seems to be an end to the appetizing content.

I'm curious though: why aren't there more videos in the mix?

I’m envious of my cousin, a pastry chef from Houston, Texas. He’s competing in Top Chef: Just Desserts on Bravo this season.

Viewers get to see him potentially impress and floor a judge with one of his creations. Potential employers could see him. Future customers could see him. They’ll see the judges salivate, smile, and indulge. Maybe those employers and customers want to salivate, smile, and indulge as well.

That visual enjoyment, along with great-looking food, leads to quite a bit of entertainment. It also is great leverage and excellent content for aspiring chefs and blooming restaurants. Dishcrawl can totally capture this kind of social proof for its audience and partners.

I definitely try to read about a restaurant before I try it, if I get a chance. There’s only so much that the written word can convey about food.

I think I’m not the only one who would be sold even more with a little bit of video. Throw in a video of people enjoying something fantastic by a local chef and I’m sure myself and many others will be even more sold than just by what we read on Yelp or Google Places.

Maybe it’s a legal thing. Maybe Dishcrawl has it in the works. All I know is that the content is fantastic where it’s going so far, especially as a fellow foodie. I’m looking forward to more, Dishcrawl!