Local Champion in British Columbia: Top 3 Explained

Local Champion in British Columbia is a title in the Mosey app that recognizes local knowledge: five ratings, three answered Top 3 questions and one list, all in the same town. It sits on your profile and beside your name on ratings, and it never depends on what you say about a place.

Work in one town, not across the province, and rate when you eat rather than at the end of the week, since a morning coffee by the ferry is hard to recall by Friday.

Local Champion is one of the tools in the British Columbia food guide for every town, and the Canadian food guides cover the wider country.

What does Local Champion in British Columbia ask of you?

Work in one town, not across the province. The idea is local knowledge: the person who can say which counter has the best chowder, which bakery sells out by nine and which cafe is the only one open in January. In a province of ferries, passes and long distances, that person is worth knowing, and the title is a small way of saying so. A rater who splits time between the island and the mainland starts the count again on the other side, and that is fair, since knowing a town is slow. The title has no prize, no discount and no free meal, and no business can be handed one or pay for one.

How do the Top 3 questions work in Canada?

The app puts one question to you on each visit, each asking for the best place for something: coffee, a restaurant, brunch. You choose up to three and put them in order of favourite. Skip any you cannot answer, though a skip does not count. Canadian questions swap in poutine where American ones ask about barbecue, and later ones cover pizza, pastries, sushi, date night and value. Answering three is enough.

Where do your answers go?

Into a private list called My town top 3s, carrying the town's name, with a section for each question. Nobody sees it but you, and you can shuffle picks whenever your mind changes. The app keeps it tidy.

Which BC towns can earn the title?

Small towns count as well as cities. Rate five places in your town and the app shows your progress toward the title. Keep rating as you eat, and every visit adds to the count.

How can you rate five places quickly?

Follow the rhythm you already have: a coffee by the ferry, a market lunch, a harbour dinner, a bakery stop on the drive home, a Sunday brunch. That is five by Sunday night. Add a dish and a tag when you can, because a rating that names the dish is the one a visitor can use. A quick note on the room, such as busy at noon or quiet at four, helps the next person pick a time. The aim is a record of five honest visits, not five perfect ones. Cuisine and kind-of-place tags build badges, which begin at five different places in a category.

What list should you make?

One with a job: a ferry weekend, a wet-day plan, a pre-hike breakfast. Add a line on why each place is there. When three or more rated places share a tag, the app offers to turn them into a list with each place ticked. Our guides show lists around the province, such as the Vancouver food halls and public markets guide and the regional foods guide.

How long does the title take to earn?

A few weeks for a regular and a season for someone staying a while. Nothing expires and no streak needs guarding, and there is no deadline or leaderboard to race, so a ski-town worker who leaves in spring or a student who goes home for summer resumes where they stopped.

Can you share your title?

As a picture, if you like, with your first name on the card. It shows the title, not the places behind it, and the title counts whether or not you share.

What does the title leave out?

Rewards, rankings and anything involving a business. It also says nothing about price, service or atmosphere, and it does not change what a place may say about itself, because a place cannot ask for it. Think of it as a note in your own handwriting that others can read. It does not say your picks are the best. It says you put in the time, in one town. Friends can follow you and see the title beside your ratings, and they can tag you when you eat together. That makes it a social habit as much as a personal one: two friends who both chase the title end up comparing Top 3 answers over a coffee, which is a good way to find out where you disagree.

How this works in the app: Local Champion and Top 3.

When you are next in a BC town you know well, begin the count in the Mosey app with one rating. Make a first coffee by the harbour rating number one, add a dish and a tag, and the other four follow over the next few weekends.