Become a Local Champion in New York City

A Local Champion in New York City has rated five different New York City places, answered three Top 3 questions about the city and made a list with a New York City place on it in the Mosey app. In a city with a food culture this big, the hard part is choosing which five, and the app counts whichever five you pick.

How do you become a Local Champion in New York City?

Rate five places, answer three Top 3 questions and make one list, all in the city. The card on Home counts each step and shows Done or To do. New York is huge, so your five may sit in different boroughs, and that is fine: the title is checked for the city of the places you rated.

Five ratings of one corner counts as one place, so spread out. A bagel on the way to work, a slice at lunch and a dinner in Queens already makes three.

Why do bagels and pizza get their own ratings?

Guides treat the bagel with lox, the foldable pizza slice and the pastrami sandwich as the city's most iconic foods, with roots in Jewish and Italian immigrant history. They are also the easiest things to rate, because you probably ate one this week. Rate by the dish: say whether it was the everything bagel or the plain slice, because the next person will want to know what to order.

The title never reads what you write, so a harsh rating of a famous bagel counts the same as a glowing one. Lists are where this city shines, too: a bagel crawl, a dumpling day or a cheap-lunch list for a new coworker all take a minute to start and are easy to share.

Which New York City neighborhoods suit your five?

Go where the cooking goes deep. Manhattan's Chinatown covers the cuisines of many provinces of China, and dim sum is a draw there. In Queens, Flushing is known for dumplings and hand-pulled noodles, and Jackson Heights is a South Asian and Latin American food hub, with momo trucks near Roosevelt Avenue. The Queens food guide covers the borough. In the Bronx, Arthur Avenue is the Italian-American corridor of pork stores, pasta shops and bakeries, and the Bronx guide goes further.

What are the New York City Top 3 questions about?

Each Top 3 visit brings a single question, and the gap between visits is four hours at minimum. The questions are about kinds of food such as pizza, bagels, Chinese, Indian, Italian and coffee. New Yorkers argue about every one. Whose slice, whose bagel, whose dumplings? You name up to three places, ranked, and you need three questions answered in New York City for the title.

Passing on a question leaves the count where it was, so name at least one place when you answer. Ask three New Yorkers where the best slice is and you will hear three answers, and none is wrong for the person giving it. That is the argument Top 3 turns into an answer: your three, in order, for one kind of food. Whether you rank a neighborhood shop above a famous one is your call, and the app counts only that you named it.

What goes on a New York City list that counts?

A list of your own with a New York City place on it. Ideas: "Cheap lunches near my office", "Queens in a day" or "Where I take people who visit". Do not reuse My Favorites or the list Top 3 keeps for you, since neither counts. Make a new one with its own name.

Add a place, write a line about it and share the list. In a city this size, a friend's addition is often the best part.

How do dishes, tags and friends help in New York City?

New York is a city of specifics: the dish matters more than the name over the door. Rate by the dish, add tags such as Hidden Gem or Great Value, tag who you ate with and follow friends to see what they rate. Home shows their activity under This week with friends. The title ignores all of it, since it counts only that you rated.

How do you spread five ratings across the boroughs?

A simple plan is one rating per outing. Rate the bagel on the way to work, the slice at lunch, a weekend dumpling run in Queens, a bakery pastry in the Bronx and a late dinner near home, and the five arrive in a week or two without any extra effort. Put the places in different neighborhoods and it also makes the rating step the most fun part of the title.

Brooklyn and Staten Island count in exactly the same way. The title is checked for the city, so a rating anywhere in it adds to the same five.

What do you get when you earn it?

"You are a Local Champion of New York City", a title on your profile and beside your name on ratings of New York City places, and a Share my title button that makes a picture card with three plain numbers. No prize, discount or payment comes with it. The how-to guide explains the rules, and the Nashville page shows a smaller city's version.

Mosey is free for a place to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools, and supporting local in New York City can start with one honest rating of the place you keep returning to. The Local Champion page shows the screens, and the US food guides cover more cities.

Get the Mosey app, rate the slice you had today and start the New York City list that finishes your title.