MSU student brings local restaurants to the desktop

GoGreenMenus.com features scanned menus from more than 65 local establishments as well as online food ordering options

by Andy Balaskovitz

The wealth of restaurants available to East Lansing residents and visitors is one of the area’s most distinctive features. Not only would it be difficult to have a taste of them all, merely knowing how many exist is no easy task. GoGreenMenus.com, a website founded by MSU junior Andrew Youatt, has made accessing these restaurants gloriously simple.

No longer will patrons have to depend on word of mouth or the Yellow Pages to get a feel for East Lansing cuisine. GoGreenMenus.com proudly features fully scanned menus from more than 65 establishments in town, as well as drink specials from over a dozen bars and clubs and delivery information on participating eateries. Visitors can phone in their orders or, in a number of cases, do so online from his site.

Youatt and his partners recently launched the project and their expectations are high. “I genuinely believe in this thing and I think it’s an excellent - and free - resource for students. I use it all the time just because it’s so convenient,” explained Youatt.

Andrew worked for a similar site during his freshman year but felt he could do better. “There are so many restaurants around here and the community deserves to know what they are all about.” Soon after, Andrew got together with the Pennsylvania-based firm, Lionmenus.com, to create a site with a more personal, community-oriented feel.

The New York-based national chain campusfood.com remains a major competitor. The company has been offering online ordering for 14 different East Lansing restaurants for more than five years. In an effort to “maintain their personal, well-established relationships with East Lansing restaurants,” said a campusfood.com representative, contracts were sent to their East Lansing associates stipulating their online orders be exclusively through campusfood.com. However, Andrew has succeeded in persuading all but two of their restaurants to sign with him as well.

Competition is good for both the businesses and the community, said Youatt. “But when contracts are introduced restricting one business from serving the community, it’s as if the community gets cheated as well.”

Youatt said that he has succeeded in carrying out his initial intentions of the project: to create a helpful, free, one-stop resource for MSU students and the East Lansing community.