Local Champion Nanaimo: Earn the Title

Local Champion Nanaimo is a title the Mosey app hands out once someone has five ratings, three answered Top 3 questions and one list, all for Nanaimo. A Saturday can do it: a coffee near the ferry terminal, ratings on the walk, Top 3 on the ferry home and a list in the evening.

Nothing in the title costs anything, and nothing is sold through it. A visitor on a ferry day can earn it if the stops add up, and a friend group can give each person five places.

How do you rate 5 places in Nanaimo on one Saturday?

It begins with a coffee near the ferry terminal, the first rating of the day. Mid-morning, a bakery on the Nanaimo Bar Trail provides the second, with the dish named. Lunch at a pub or brewpub makes the third. A walk along the harbour brings an ice cream, the fourth, and a seafood supper at the end of the day is the fifth; the seafood guide suggests what to ask for. Each rating needs the place and the stars. The dish, tags, a photo and a few words are yours to add.

When do the Nanaimo top 3 questions fit in?

On the walk between stops, or on the ferry home. Questions arrive one on each visit, each about somewhere near you: the coffee, the restaurant, the brunch. Choose as many as three places per question and put them in order, favourite first, or pass on any you cannot answer, though a pass does not count. Answering three questions does the job. Whatever you answer is stored in a private list, My Nanaimo top 3s, that nobody else can open.

How do you make a list in Nanaimo that evening?

On the sofa that evening. Create a list called, say, Nanaimo Saturday, drop in the places you went and jot why each one earned its spot. Pick who may view it. The rating bars guide explains how a list of one dessert can work, and any list that includes a Nanaimo place counts for the third job. Invite a friend so the list grows.

Does the title judge your taste?

No, and by design. A scathing note and a glowing one weigh exactly the same, because the title never depends on what you say about a place. All it records is that you joined in with the town's eating. A business cannot earn it, buy it or ask for it, and it never ranks any place. It brings no discount, prize or reward.

What shows on a Local Champion Nanaimo profile?

Once earned, it sits on your profile and next to your name on every rating you write, which tells a reader you have eaten widely in the city. There is a share card too, and putting your first name on it is up to you. The card carries a small summary of what you did, not what you thought, so it makes a gentle thing to send to a friend who is planning a trip to the island and wants to know whether you have been.

How is it different from a badge?

Badges follow a kind of food and climb with the number of different places: five bakeries make a Sampler, then Taster, Expert and Connoisseur as the count grows. The city title is separate, belongs to the place and is won once the three jobs are done. A keen diner can collect both, and a visitor who rates seafood in Nanaimo may earn a seafood badge before the city title.

Could a visitor on a ferry day earn it?

Yes, if the stops add up. A traveller with a long wait between sailings can rate a coffee, a pastry and a lunch, answer a Top 3 question at the terminal and build a list on the crossing. Others need a season. The record is the same either way, and a city with few ratings benefits from every honest one.

What about a game with friends?

Choose a weekend and give each person five places. Compare Top 3 answers over a drink, and tag the people you ate with so they can add their own ratings. If you want a different kind of puzzle, the Ladle game asks you to guess a dish in six tries, with a new set every day at midnight. It is for people aged eighteen and over, and there are no prizes.

Is there a cost? Nothing in the title costs anything, and nothing is sold through it.

Why bother? For the record. A city with few ratings is a city where a good new place stays hidden, and each rating from a regular makes the next search easier.

For the province, start at the Food in British Columbia page, and see the Canadian food guides for other cities.

How this works in the app: Local Champion.

Seeing Nanaimo's food in food terms, not tourist ones, is what the three jobs encourage, and each rating is a small piece of local knowledge handed to a stranger. Next time you cross the harbour, open the Mosey app, rate the first Nanaimo place you pass and let the count begin.