Each year, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma partners with chefs and restaurants around the metro to stage an amazing fundraiser full of culinary innovation and dedicated to the cause of feeding hungry children in our community. This year, EatAroundOKC is pleased to sponsor the Food Bank’s annual Chefs’ Feast and we want to encourage you to consider attending and supporting this great event as well.

The 2012 event takes place on March 29th from 7pm to 10pm at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The event gives you the opportunity to taste culinary creations from many of the best chefs in the Oklahoma City area, including chefs from the following restaurants:

• Big Truck Tacos
• Cafe 7
• The Coach House
• Gopuram Taste of India
• Iguana Mexican Grill
• The Mantel
• Matthew Kenney OKC
• Metro Wine Bar and Bistro
• Mutt’s Amazing Hot Dogs
• Nonna’s Euro-American Ristorante
• Pachinko Parlor
• The Ranch Steakhouse
• Red Prime Steak
• RePUBlic Gastropub
• Rococo
• Sara Sara Cupcakes
• Trattoria Il Centro
• West Restaurant
• Plus many more …

This is a very unique opportunity to get to meet the people behind many of  your favorite Oklahoma City restaurants and to experience their unique dining creations. Not only that, but you will know that your support of this event makes a direct impact in the fight against hunger in our community. We’re very excited to be a part this year and we hope you’ll consider joining us at this event.

Individual tickets are $120 per person and may be purchased online.  All proceeds from this event go to support the Regional Food Bank’s Food for Kids programs. I have heard that these events have sold out in the past so be sure to get your tickets as soon as possible.

We hope to see you there!

It’s that time of year again. Time to reflect on all that’s happened in the previous twelve months and take a look at what’s coming up in the new year. As I look back at EatAroundOKC in 2011, there’s one thing that stands out to me above everything else and that is our partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Thanks to overwhelming support from our followers and from local Oklahoma City restaurants, we were able to raise over $8,200 for the Food Bank this past year.

Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without your support. I want to say thank you again to all of you who follow and support us. We love being a part of the discussion with you and we appreciate every comment you leave, every email you write, every tweet you send, and every deal you purchase.

I also want to say thanks to all of the restaurants who have worked with us to make special offers through our EatAroundOKC Deals program. It is their offers and your purchases that generate the revenue we donate to the Food Bank each month. So naturally, without restaurants to make offers and an audience to purchase them, none of this would be possible.

I want to specifically recognize J. Mays and Chris Kana at Cafe 7, who not only made an offer through our program, but then matched our own donation to the Food Bank with one of their own. Because of their generosity, our Cafe 7 deal alone raised over $2,400 for the Regional Food Bank. Thank you, J. and Chris, for going above and beyond for the fight against hunger in Oklahoma.

Onward to 2012: Try More Local Restaurants, OKC!

With a great year behind us, we’re now looking forward to 2012. Our partnership with the Food Bank continues, our team of volunteer writers and photographers is larger than ever, and our excitement about the local restaurant scene in the Oklahoma City metro has never been greater.

I hope that you’ll come along with us and make a commitment to try even more locally-owned Oklahoma City restaurants this year. You can always find great places to try by checking out our reviews and our Top 100. Plus, if you subscribe to our deals program you’ll find great offers to try new local places at big discounts. Oh, and if you have a question or something to share, leave us a comment, send us a tweet, post something on Facebook, or just contact us through good old-fashioned email.

We look forward to hearing more from you in 2012!

But we kept on publishing and over the years we’ve been blessed with what I consider to be the most fantastic group of readers and followers around. We’ve been honored to have a group of writers who have voluntarily contributed reviews to our site. What started as a small hobby has now turned into a large and time-consuming hobby. It’s a hobby that I dearly love because of the great people I have met and the great conversations we have had about local Oklahoma City restaurants.

If you’ll be so kind as to indulge me a trip down memory lane, I’d like to lay out a brief outline of some of the significant milestones and statistics related to EatAroundOKC and its first five years.

Milestones:

• September 7, 2006 – site launched and first post published for Thai Kitchen
• September 30, 2007 – published first “Shady Restaurant of the Month” feature for Sydney’s Restaurant.
• November 10, 2007 – added restaurant rating capabilities allowing readers to cast their own ratings.
• March 16, 2008 – launched new design (v2) on EatAroundOKC.com
• May 3, 2008 – launched EatAroundOKC on Twitter
• June 10, 2010 – launched EatAroundOKC on Facebook
• August 9-14, 2010 – created inaugural “Local Restaurant Appreciation Week” encouraging everyone to show their appreciation to local restaurants in Oklahoma City.
• November 8, 2010 – launched current design (v3) on EatAroundOKC.com
• December 2, 2010 – launched EatAroundOKC Deals with offer for The Cow Calf-Hay.
• May 24, 2011 – began EatAroundOKC’s partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.
• August 18, 2011 – launched restaurant listings database to allow restaurants the opportunity to list themselves on EatAroundOKC for free.

Stats:

• 1.5 Million Pageviews
• 350,000 Unique Visitors
• $6,000 Raised for Regional Food Bank
• 4,508 Reader Comments
• 4,270 Tweets
• 3,661 Twitter Followers
• 3,204 Facebook Fans
• 191 Restaurant Reviews
• 35 Deals Offered

If you would have told me five years ago that a simple, hyper-local, niche website about places I like to eat in Oklahoma City could turn into this, I would have never believed it. I am truly grateful for all of your support and participation. Thank you all so much. I look forward to the next five years and beyond!

We’re excited to announce that in our first month of partnering with Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma (RFBO), we’ve raised over $3,100 to aid the fight against hunger in our state. These funds have been raised through our EatAroundOKC Deals program which is donating $1 for every voucher sold in the past month.

Since beginning this promotion, we’ve run six deals and have sold approximately 3,180 vouchers altogether. Though that number is not final, it is a very close estimate and means we will be making a donation of approximately $3,180 to RFBO for the first month of our partnership.

As you know, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is an outstanding organization with very low administrative costs of less than 4%. Because of their efficient operations, they are able to provide seven meals to those in need for every $1 they receive in donations. So, we’re thrilled to know that our first month’s donation could provide over 22,000 meals to hungry Oklahomans.

Of course, this would not have been possible without participation from the six restaurants who offered deals through our program in this first month of our partnership with RFBO. I would like to offer a special thanks to Caffe Pranzo, 4U Cafe, Cafe 501, Humble Pie Pizzeria, Irma’s Burger Shack and Home Run Sliders for their participation in our program this month.

I’d also like to thank each of you who supported our program by purchasing vouchers. By choosing to purchase from EatAroundOKC Deals you’ve not only supported local restaurants and our local restaurant website, but you’ve also contributed to Oklahoma’s fight against hunger. We really appreciate all of the support you have shown us and our program.

The Partnership Continues

We’re pleased to tell you that our partnership with the Regional Food Bank will continue next month, and we’re improving the calculation used to determine our financial contributions. Beginning July 1st, our commitment will be to donate 20% of net proceeds from every deal we run to RFBO. We will define net proceeds as the amount of revenue retained by EatAroundOKC after distributing revenue to other parties involved in the transaction, including the restaurant, our operational partners, and any affiliates or sales channels.

We’re excited to continue this partnership and we want to thank you again for your support of EatAroundOKC and the EatAroundOKC Deals program. We appreciate your desire to join us in supporting local Oklahoma City restaurants.

Please indulge us while we take a break from our regular flow of restaurant reviews to share some exciting news about what’s happening here at EatAroundOKC. We’re very pleased to announce that we’re beginning what we hope will be a long-term partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. This outstanding organization battles on the front lines of the fight against hunger in our state and by supporting their efforts, we hope to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need.

For full details about the commitments we’ve made to Regional Food Bank, you can check out the Our Cause page here on our website.

$1 Donated for Every Voucher Sold

The most tangible aspect of our partnership is that, beginning with this week’s deal, we’ll be donating $1 for every voucher sold through the EatAroundOKC Deals program to the Regional Food Bank.

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the Regional Food Bank operates so efficiently and with such buying power that they are able to make seven meals out of every dollar donated. So, when you buy a voucher through EatAroundOKC Deals from this point forward, you’re not only getting a great meal for yourself at a great discount, you’re also supplying seven meals to those in need.

Sharing Through Our Communications Channels

We also plan to support the Food Bank by utilizing our communications channels, as appropriate, to spread the word about their activities and ways in which we all can support their efforts. As you read updates from the Regional Food Bank in our Twitter feed or on our Facebook page, we hope you’ll stay open to their message and consider lending your support as well.

Why Regional Food Bank?

Naturally, we spend a lot of time thinking about and talking about food. As with anything in life, without balance, it’s easy to get wrapped up in our own world where dining options are limitless and where it’s easy to forget that for many people, food is purely a means of survival. We hope that by channeling some of our efforts towards the cause of fighting hunger in our state, we can provide that balance and can be a part of the solution in our own small way.

Thanks for Your Support!

We are grateful for your support of EatAroundOKC and we hope you’ll also consider supporting the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma with your time and your donations. Thank you for being a part of the discussion and a part of the solution.

Here are today’s winners. Please note that winners will receive an email with instructions on how to claim their prizes.

• Jerry and Lesa win $25 gift cards to Rococo’s Restaurant (review).
• Sharon and Alexis win $15 gift cards to The Wedge Pizzeria (review), also good at any Deep Fork Group restaurant.
• Lynn wins a $25 gift card to Iguana Mexican Grill (review).
• J and Michele win $10 gift certificates to Bunny’s Onion Burgers (review).
• Benjamin wins a $20 gift certificate to Prairie Thunder Baking Company (review).
• KC and Jeff win $10 gift cards to any A Good Egg Dining Group restaurant, including Cheever’s Cafe (review) and Iron Starr BBQ (review).
• Jerrald wins a free KeepItLocalOK card.

Remember, the giveaway continues for the next two months and the entries start over. Every comment left on any article on this website during the months of March and April will count as an entry. We’ve got a lot of prizes left to give away so be sure to leave those comments. For full details, see our giveaway page.

Congrats to all of today’s winners and good luck to everyone in the next two months. Thanks for all the great comments!

I must apologize for the length of time that has passed since the last time we gave away some gift cards in the fall. It’s been a busy few months around EatAroundOKC. We launched a completely new brand and website design as well as the EatAroundOKC Deals program. With all of this activity, the gift card giveaways were put on hold for a few months.

But no worries, because we’ll be counting all comments left on our site from November 2010 through February 2011 as entries for this next round of gift card giveaways. Every comment is an entry, so the more comments you leave, the better your chances of winning. You’ve got two more weeks to get those comments in so take a look around the site, find a restaurant  you’ve visited but never commented on, and let us know what you think. Your comments are the most valuable part of this site, and they may even win you some free food!

Please remember that comments left on Facebook don’t count as entries. We love having discussions on our Facebook page, but we also need your comments on our website. Facebook discussions are temporary and eventually drop off the page as time moves on, but comments left on our articles will endure. So, be sure to leave your thoughts on this website as well as joining the discussion on Facebook.

Thanks again for all of your support of local Oklahoma City restaurants and EatAroundOKC. We enjoy being a part of the discussion with you!

EatAroundOKC Launches New Website

We’re sporting a new look around here. We just launched the 3rd generation of EatAroundOKC, a huge upgrade in design and functionality that we hope you’ll enjoy. Here’s some details on what’s new:

• New design. Fantastic new design by a great friend of EatAroundOKC, Chris Borah. Chris now lives in Kentucky, where he misses all the good food we have around here.
• New branding. The new design includes new branding elements like a new EatAroundOKC logo. We’ve never had a logo before. Sweet!
• New review filtering. On the home page, use our handy filters to browse reviews by any combination of cuisine-type, location, and special features. Also, order them by date, title or most comments. So, for example, you can easily pull up all Asian food in Edmond and see the posts with the most comments first!
• New photography. Better integration of photography. We hope to be adding a lot more images to the site in the days ahead.

Winner Selected in the $250 Samuel Gordon Gift Card Giveaway

We’ve chosen a winner from those who signed up for EatAroundOKC Deals as of last night. Unfortunately, since all we have is an email address, we can’t tell you much about the winner yet. We hope to update this post with more details once we hear back from the winner.

This week – tweet to win! This week, we’ll be giving away $25 gift cards to Rococo Restaurant (review) to people who tweet a link to our deals site. It’s just in time for the opening of the new Rococo Northpark! See the top of our deals page and stay tuned to our Twitter feed for more information.

10 Winners Announced for October’s Gift Card Giveaaways

Also, if you didn’t know, we give away gift cards every month to people who leave comments on any of the reviews on our site. Every comment is an entry, and there are more prizes to come, so be sure to leave those comments. The winners of October’s prizes are listed below:

• Benjamin and Corey win $15 gift cards to The Wedge Pizzeria (review), also good at any Deep Fork Group restaurant.
• Rick wins a $25 gift card to Iguana Mexican Grill (review).
• Aimee and Jennifer win $10 gift certificates to Bunny’s Onion Burgers (review).
• Michael wins a $20 gift certificate to Prairie Thunder Baking Company (review).
• Christi and Suzy win $10 gift cards to any A Good Egg Dining Group restaurant, including Cheever’s Cafe (review) and Iron Starr BBQ (review).
• Debbie wins a free dinner for two at Casa Perico (review).
• Ashlee wins a free KeepItLocalOK card.

As always, winners, you will get an email from me with instructions on how to claim your prize. Thanks for all of the comments and keep them coming. There are more prizes to be won!

Sign up now and you could win one of two $250 gift cards from Samuel Gordon Jewelers!

This week only! We’ve partnered up with Samuel Gordon Jewelers to offer you a chance to win a fantastic prize when you sign up for EatAroundOKC deals. Sign up for free by Sunday, November 7th and you’ll be eligible to win. We’ll select one $250 gift card winner at random on Monday, November 8th. Plus, if we hit our goal for sign ups this week, we’ll give away a second gift card as well, so please help spread the word.

Sign up now and you’ll get a $5 deals credit!

In addition to being eligible for our giveaways, EVERYONE who signs up ahead of our launch will receive a $5 credit in their deals account. That means when you go to buy your first deal, you’ll get a $5 discount. All you have to do to get the credit is sign up now! By the way, if you’ve already signed up for deals, don’t worry, you’ll receive the $5 credit as well (you’ll also be eligible for our giveaways).

We need you to sign up now (can you tell?). It’s free and easy!

Before we can launch, we need to hit our goal for email sign-ups. Why? Because the primary way you will find out about the deals we offer is through an email we will send you on the day each deal is available.

Signing up is free and easy. All it takes is an email address. There’s no obligation to buy anything and we’re not going to spam you. Signing up just means you’ll receive an email whenever a new deal is announced.

Click this link to visit our deals page and sign up today!

Get more information on our deals page.

Please visit deals.eataroundokc.com to get more information about our program and to sign up now. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below or contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Here are September’s winners. Please note that winners will receive an email with instructions on how to claim their prizes.

• Kacy, Stormy, and  Becky win $25 gift cards to Rococo’s Restaurant (review).
• Lynsie, Jenn, and Kristi win $15 gift cards to The Wedge Pizzeria (review), also good at any Deep Fork Group restaurant.
• Melissa wins a $25 gift card to Iguana Mexican Grill (review).
• Brian, Cult of Nobody, and Blake win $10 gift certificates to Bunny’s Onion Burgers (review).
• Wimpy wins a $20 gift certificate to Prairie Thunder Baking Company (review).
• JuJu Beans and Lesa win $10 gift cards to any A Good Egg Dining Group restaurant, including Cheever’s Cafe (review) and Iron Starr BBQ (review).
• Lori wins a free dinner for two at Casa Perico (review).
• Zombii wins a free KeepItLocalOK card.

Remember, the giveaway continues in October and the entries start over. Every comment left on any article on this website during the month of October will count as an entry for October’s prizes. We’ve got at least as many prizes to give away for October so be sure to leave those comments. For full details, see our giveaway page.

Congrats to all of our September winners and good luck to everyone in October. Thanks for all the great comments!

Every comment is an entry

Here’s how it works. Leave your comments on any review on our website. Every comment is an entry. If you leave ten comments, you’ve got ten chances to win. If you leave twenty comments, twenty chances … you get the idea. At the end of each month throughout the Fall of 2010, we’ll randomly select a bunch of comments left during that month and send prizes to their authors. You can get full details on our giveaway page.

Please note: only comments left on our actual website reviews count as entries. We certainly love to have your comments on Twitter and Facebook as well, but those won’t be counted as giveaway entries.

A ton of great prizes

We’ve got more stuff to give away this fall than ever before thanks to our amazing giveaway sponsors. Check out the list of restaurants and the prizes they’ve donated below. And be sure to let these restaurants know how much you appreciate their generosity!

• Rococo Restaurant. Ten (10) gift cards at $25 each to Rococo Restaurant (review).
• The Wedge / Deep Fork. Ten (10) gift cards at $15 each good at any Deep Fork Restaurant including The Wedge (review), Deep Fork (review), Chica’s Mexican Cafe (review),  and Cafe Nova (review).
• Iguana Mexican Grill. Four (4) gift cards at $25 each to Iguana Mexican Grill (review).
• Bunny’s Onion Burgers. Ten (10) gift certificates at $10 each to Bunny’s Onion Burgers (review).
• Prairie Thunder Baking Company. Four (4) gift certificates at $20 each to the Prairie Thunder Baking Company (review).
• A Good Egg Dining Group. Seven (7) gift cards at $10 each good at any Good Egg restaurant including Cheever’s Cafe (review), Iron Starr (review), Red Prime Steak (review), and Republic Gastropub (review).
• Casa Perico. Two (2) gift certificates good for two dinner plates or fajitas for two at Casa Perico (review).
• KeepItLocalOK. Four (4) KeepItLocalOK cards valued at $10 each, good for discounts and special offers at various local restaurants and retail stores.

As you can see, that’s a lot of prizes to give away, so you’ve got a great chance of winning something. Remember, the more comments you leave, the better your chances.

Winners for August announced

We ran a special giveaway promotion in the latter half of August, and we’re announcing the winners for those prizes today as well. If your name is on the list, I’ve already sent you an email with instructions on claiming your prize.

• Mabsy wins a $25 gift card to Sonic Drive-In.
• Lesa wins a $10 gift card to Rococo Restaurant (review).
• James wins a free lunch at Casa Perico (review).

Bring on the comments

The giveaway is already underway. Our first prizes will be announced in early October. Winners will be selected from all comments left in the month of September (even those left prior to today). So, what are you waiting for? Browse through our site, find a restaurant you’ve visited, and leave your thoughts in the comments. You might just win a prize!

That’s why we want to encourage you to leave your own comments on as many of our reviews as possible. So, we’ve put together a few special features and incentives to help entice you to let your voice be heard.

New feature: subscribe to reviews and get comments delivered to you by email

To help you better keep up with the discussions going on in the comments of our reviews, we’ve launched an email subscription service that will notify you whenever someone leaves a comment on the reviews you subscribe to. Don’t worry, we’ll only send emails when you opt into this service, and we’ve got a whole subscription manager built in so you can easily unsubscribe from individual reviews, all reviews, and even easily change the email address that we send to.

There are two ways to subscribe to the comments for a review. First, when you leave a comment on a review, you can simply check the box that says “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail” before submitting your comment, and you’ll be automatically subscribed. Or, if you want to subscribe to a review without having to leave a comment, just look for the box at the very bottom of any review that says “Subscribe without commenting.” Put your email address in that box and hit “subscribe.”

Once you’ve subscribed to the comments on a review, you’ll see a message at the bottom of the review that tells you you’re subscribed and gives you a link to manage your subscriptions. You’ll also get a link to the subscription manager in every email sent to you by the system, so it’s easy to unsubscribe or manage your subscriptions.

Subscribing to comments allows you to stay up to date on what’s being said about restaurants of interest to you, so you can leave follow up comments or replies to others. Give it a try today!

Special giveaways for comments left before the end of August 2010

To give you even more incentive to keep those comments flowing, we’re launching another special giveaway. All comments left between now and August 31, 2010 will be counted as entries in the giveaway. The more comments you leave, the more entries you get. We’ll randomly select some of the comments and give prizes to their authors. We’ve got a $25 Sonic gift card and several KeepItLocalOK discount cards to give away so there are plenty of chances to win. For more details, see our giveaway page.

Thanks to all of you for your support

I cannot tell you how much I am amazed by all of the support we have received from you all over the years. Many of you have been heavily involved in commenting and discussing restaurants on Twitter and Facebook and we appreciate it so much. I’m hoping our new comment functionality and our giveaways will encourage you to continue the discussion here on our website and also encourage others who have never commented on a review to give it a try. After all, it really is true that your comments are the most important part of EatAroundOKC!

We need you to help us make this event a success. “How?” you ask. It’s easy, just follow these steps:

1. Click here to visit the event page on Facebook.
2. RSVP to the event using the buttons at the top (you’ll need to be logged into Facebook to do this).
3. Then, invite your friends to support the event as well by clicking “Select guests to invite” under the event image at the upper left of the page.
4. Finally, during the week of August 9th through the 14th, eat at local Oklahoma City restaurants at least three times and go out of your way to show your favorite restaurants some love (there are more ideas on how to show your appreciation on the event page).

That’s it! It’s a pretty simple event, but its power will be in rallying as many people as possible to be a part. So, please help us out. You can get more details, show your support, and invite your own friends on the event’s Facebook page.

Thanks again for your support of our website and of local Oklahoma City restaurants!

Update: we’ve created a special “Thank You Note” that you can print out and leave at the restaurants you visit during Local Restaurant Appreciation Week (along with a generous tip, of course!). We hope you’ll find it a useful way to spread the local restaurant love. Click here to get the thank you note (pdf).

I also hope you’ll “like” our page and become a fan. Not only will that make us feel loved, but it will help you keep up with our reviews and discussions from right inside Facebook. Plus, as a fan, you can even add your own posts, photos and videos to our page. The value of EatAroundOKC has always been about the contributions from readers like you so please join up with us on Facebook and help us keep the discussion going.

We’ll also be having some little games and even some Facebook-only giveaways from time to time so that’s another good reason to stay connected.

As always, thanks for all of your contributions in our comments, on Twitter, and now on Facebook. I continue to be amazed by the support you all have shown for our little site. I look forward to more good times to come.

Here’s a look at the winners for November. These fine folks had their comments randomly selected from all of the comments left on our site in the month of November. If you’re not on the list, don’t dispair. There are plenty more prizes available for December and beyond, but you have to leave comments on the site each month to be eligible. For more information, see our giveaway page.

• MaryAnn wins a free “Dinner for Two” from Casa Perico (review). This includes two entrees or one full order of fajitas plus two beverages.
• Brooke wins a $20 gift card from Market-C.
• Julie wins $10 in pizza bucks from Hideaway Pizza.

If you are one of our winners, you have already received an email from me. Please reply to claim your prize. If not, stay tuned for more prizes to be announced next month. Have a happy holiday season!

If you are one of the winners, you should have already received an email from me. As always, we are extremely grateful to the gracious restaurants that donate gift cards for us to give away to you. Here are October’s winners.

• Richard wins a $25 gift card to Cafe Nova (review).
• Jimmy wins a $10 gift card to Rococo (review).
• Chris and “Very Satisfied Customer” both win $10 in pizza bucks at Hideaway Pizza.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments. Your thoughts and comments are what make this site an extremely valuable resource, so please keep them coming and you might just win a prize!

Here’s a list of September’s winners:

• Rosie wins a $25 gift card to Deep Fork Grill (review).
• Cult of Nobody wins a $20 gift card to Market-C.
• Jocelyn wins $10 in pizza bucks at Hideaway Pizza.

If you are one of the winners, you should have already received an email notification from me. Be sure to reply and claim your prize.

Congrats to our winners and thanks to all of you for leaving comments on our site. Your comments are what really make our site fun, so please keep them coming. Remember that only comments left in October will be eligible for October’s prizes.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Here’s a list of August’s winners:

• Craig wins a $50 gift card to Paseo Grill.
• Alisa wins a $20 gift card to Market-C.
• Matt wins a $20 gift card to Rococo (review).

If you are one of the winners, you should have already received an email notification from me. Be sure to reply and claim your prize.

Congrats to our winners and thanks to all of you for leaving comments on our site. Your comments are what really make our site fun, so please keep them coming. Remember that only comments left in September will be eligible for September’s prizes.

Oh, and if you haven’t already, check us out on Twitter. We’ve got nearly 1,300 followers now and it’s a whole lot of fun. You can use the #eataroundokc tag in your tweets to join the conversation and get your tweets listed on our Twitter page. Plus, we occasionally offer special giveaways just to our Twitter followers as well.

Andrew was the very first writer to join the EatAroundOKC.com team nearly two years ago. Since then, he’s contributed over forty restaurant reviews and numerous comments on this site. He also invented the “Shady Restaurant of the Month” series, which has become one of the most popular features of our site. We regularly hear from readers who love the shady restaurants and can’t wait to hear of Andrew’s next find.

With an iron stomach, a seemingly impervious immune system, and an almost reverent respect for anything and everything deep-fried, Andrew has braved Oklahoma City’s shadiest regions to find the culinary jewels that most of us would never find on our own. He’s brought recognition to many of OKC’s deserving but previously unknown restauranteurs. And, he’s done it all for the love of Oklahoma City and its restaurant community, because I can tell you that he, like all of our writers, works strictly as a volunteer.

It is Andrew who first introduced us to Nic’s Grill and Mama E’s and who is primarily responsible for directing the producers of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives to those locations. Andrew also directed our attention to the amazing tacos at Los Comales, the succulent chicken at El Regio Loco and Oklahoma City’s only location for eating goat biryani in a truck stop — the Tandoor restaurant. Of course, the list of hidden finds goes on and on. You can relive the memories by viewing all of Andrew’s review contributions on his author page.

So, it is with great sadness that we say farewell to Andrew. We wish him well as he and his family make the transition back to their home state of Tennessee. I hope you’ll leave a comment here on this post and join us in thanking Andrew for his contributions here.

(Oh, and if anyone out there loves shady restaurants and fancies themselves a writer, we’ve got an opening on our writing team. Contact us if you’re interested. It pays nothing, but it’s sure a lot of fun).

Thanks again, Andrew. Best of luck to you and may Nashville’s shady dining industry finally get the respect it deserves.

Here’s a list of July’s winners:

• Ryan S. wins a $50 gift card to Paseo Grill.
• JuJuBeans wins a $20 gift card to Rococo (review).
• Jared wins $10 in pizza bucks from Hideaway Pizza.

If you are one of the winners, you will receive an email notification from me. Be sure to reply and claim your prize.

Thanks for all of the comments, everyone, and keep them coming. Remember that only comments left in August will be eligible for August’s prizes. Plus, your opinions are what really make this site great, so please let us know what you think.

Oh, and if you haven’t already, you might consider following us on Twitter. We occasionally offer special giveaways just to our Twitter followers as well.