Rating System

Which restaurants you will find on festivore?

We try to include all restaurants that are doing a good job of addressing one or more of our core values: great taste (the pleasures of food), connecting people (building community), a natural habitat in which to enjoy the food, health & wellness, real food (as opposed to factory food), affordability, eco-friendliness and fairness (social equity).

Which restaurants and food purveyors will festivore will NOT include?

Restaurants serving mainly industrial food in an institutional-feeling habitat will not be found on festivore. With apologies to most chains and high-priced steakhouses, restaurants serving mostly massive portions of corn-fed beef fall in this category. Even locally-focused establishments that are tied to non-natural food systems, without strongly redeeming social or habitat features, will not be included.

For example, of the roughly 3,000 restaurants in Seattle only about 300, or 10%, are selected for inclusion in festivore. We expect to find a much higher percentage in Geneva, with its strong culinary tradition and wealth of small farms, and much lower percentage for many cities in the US interior, where industrial farming and franchise restaurants have an overwhelming presence.

Festivore Choice

What do the logos and stars mean, and how do you decide who gets them?

All of of this is explained in the Awards link on the sidebar!