By Allie Hoerster
Nightowl makes finding a place that pleases all of your friends easy in a few simple steps. Christian Wiloejo/The Fordham Ram
Many people — whether young, old or somewhere in between — find themselves lost in the overwhelmingly vast bar and club scene of New York City. There are seemingly endless options to choose from: upscale bars with live music and dancing, casual pubs with outdoor space and cocktails or lounges with DJs and strobe lights.
Well, stress no more. NightOwl, an app released in the fall of 2014, is here to ease the process of choosing where to spend Friday and Saturday nights (or Tuesday, if that is your m.o.). NightOwl is powered by the “Nightlife Genome Project,” a project established by a group of scientists who investigate and analyze nightlife activities. Instead of having hundreds of Yelp and Foursquare results to sift through, users can type keywords like ‘trendy,’ ‘karaoke,’ or ‘sports’ into the application’s search bar, and locations that match these descriptive tags will appear instantaneously. These on-screen locations are interactive; the user has the ability to slide through photographs and reviews of the venue, receive step-by-step directions to the location and even schedule an Uber ride with a single click.
Kevin Madden, co-founder of NightOwl, mentioned that the newest version of the app will provide the user with the opportunity to see the venue’s Twitter feed for quick updates. If the chosen location is a hit with friends, one could add the bar or club to the ‘saved places’ category for future reference. When asked about his own personal favorites, Madden acknowledged that getting personalized recommendations is much more valuable than getting objective ones, but he did refer to a list of popular locations on NightOwl.com/blog as well as the “Top 50 List” on the application itself.
NightOwl is a true innovation, one that is facilitating, revolutionizing and personalizing the way that unique nightlife opportunities are found. After all, there is no better place on earth for nightlife than our very own city that never sleeps.
