Foodie Registry Launches Innovative Wedding Registry in San Francisco Bay Area

Online, March 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Foodie Registry (www.FoodieRegistry.com), an innovative website where wedding couples can create a gift registry for restaurant gift certificates, launched its service in the San Francisco Bay Area on March 3rd, 2011. Originally started in Chicago in 2010, the launch marks Foodie Registry's first step outside of its home market.

Foodie Registry serves wedding couples in San Francisco and Chicago looking for an alternative to traditional wedding registries. In the era of live-in romances and later-in-life marriages, many modern wedding couples already have much of the material items commonly given as wedding gifts by the time they're ready to walk down the aisle. Enter Foodie Registry, the wedding registry that allows couples to register for memorable experiences and great food instead.

"Today's engaged couple has less need for traditional registry items and ends up returning much of it. Modern couples also have a much higher appreciation for the value of experiences and time spent with loved ones. We fill that gap, along with providing a fresh, unique alternative to the status quo" says Foodie Registry co-founder Ben Reid.

Reid and his wife Jennifer created the company after eschewing the traditional registry at their own wedding in 2008 and creating a "restaurant registry" instead. The registry was a huge hit with guests, and Foodie Registry was born.

Foodie Registry is free and functions just like a normal registry, where the gifts are restaurant gift certificates or, as the company likes to say, date nights! Gift purchasers can view their friends' registry and purchase a gift certificate for them right from the site, with zero fees to either registrants or purchasers, a key distinction from other popular alternative registries like "Honeymoon" or "Cash" registries.

Foodie Registry's initial Bay Area restaurant partners include Farallon, Waterbar, EPIC Roasthouse, Limon, Local: Mission Eatery, Asia SF, and Bushi-tei. Says Reid, "Wedding couples in Chicago love being able to register for date nights, and so we're excited to bring this concept to Bay Area brides and grooms." The company is currently in discussions with many more and plans to significantly increase the number of Bay Area restaurant options offered over the coming months.