Those looking to dine and party with Asian American stars like John Cho, Lisa Ling and Kelly Hu will want to bookmark a new site called Privy.
Privy features lists of the five favorite haunts of stars and other Privy members organized by city. So far the site has opened channels for Los Angeles and Shanghai. One for the San Francisco Bay area appears to be imminent with others for New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo planned for the future.
John Cho’s list includes Matsuhisa and Kagaya for sushi, Pizzeria Mozza, Forage in Silverlake and a no-name place called Park’s BBQ in Koreatown. Lisa Ling favors Baby Blues BBQ, The Tasting Kitchen on Abbott Kinney, Din Tai Fung dumpling house in San Gabriel, sugarFISH for sushi and The Bazaar on La Cienega for tapas and desserts.
Lists of Privy’s non-star members are useful because the capsule member bios preceding each list puts their picks in the context of their background and occupation, providing some sense of the kind of crowd you might expect in each place.
Privy also lists restaurants categorized by type, including Afternoon Tea, Desserts, Burgers, Hot Pot, Romantic Restaurants and even Japanese Bar Food. You can also find listings for bars and clubs, dance clubs and even shopping centers and malls though the latter categories show that the site remains a work in progress. But Privy’s overall navigation and look-and-feel are intelligent and pleasing.
Privy founder Stephen Liu is a self-styled social capitalist who also founded APEX, the Asian Professional Exchange.
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You can check out Privy at http://www.privy.net.
