PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- DiningInfo.com, a new kind of online restaurant guide, was launched today. It is initially focused only on the Philadelphia area, but may expand into other areas in the future.

DiningInfo's home page is a Quick-Find page, designed to facilitate finding a restaurant by name, cuisine or proximity to any address. An Advanced Search page is also available, which expands the search options and provides links to 90 other dining and wine-related websites.

In addition to basic information about 1185 local restaurants, DiningInfo provides a direct link to each of the 740 restaurants that have their own website. It also provides information about each restaurant's wine service and BYO (Bring Your Own Wine) policies, not available elsewhere. That information was originally introduced in June by BYOPhilly.com, which has been absorbed by DiningInfo.com.

DiningInfo also differs from most other online restaurant guides by not publishing reviews. Instead, each listing includes a "Search for Reviews" button that automatically generates an advanced Google search across the Internet for reviews of the selected restaurant. Another button on each listing generates a maneuverable Google map plus a novel "Private Notes" feature - enabling the user to save confidential personal notes about any restaurant.

"A surprisingly large number of area restaurants -- 725 or 61% of those surveyed -- now allow patrons to bring their own wine, and that includes more than 200 restaurants with their own wine lists," said Freddi Goldstein, DiningInfo President. "That's around 10% more than in June. The robust growth in BYO acceptance is attributed to the Wine-Friendly Ratings developed by WineLovers.net, now available exclusively on DiningInfo.com.

"Each Wine-Friendly Rating is mathematically calculated according to an objective formula fully disclosed on the website. Points are awarded for the restaurant's wine policy, wine list awards, wine list accessibility and corkage fee," Goldstein added.

Goldstein reported that 642 of the 1185 restaurants have been awarded a 4-Glass Wine-Friendly Rating, and 12 restaurants have earned the highest rating -- a 5-Glass Wine-Friendly Rating.

DiningInfo found that corkage fees at Philadelphia-area restaurants that permit BYO vary widely, ranging from $0 to $50 per bottle. The most common corkage fee is $10, and the current tabulation is:

554 restaurants have no corkage fee. 80 restaurants have a corkage fee between $1 and $10. 46 restaurants have a corkage fee between $11 and $20. 34 restaurants have a corkage fee between $21 and $30. 11 restaurants have a corkage fee of $31 or more.

Goldstein stated that DiningInfo.com is totally non-commercial. There is no charge to users, no charge to any restaurant for being listed, and no advertisements are accepted. She added that DiningInfo plans to periodically re-survey the restaurants and update the database on a weekly basis. http://www.dininginfo.com/

CONTACT: Freddi Goldstein, DiningInfo.com, +1-610-572-2601,
info@dininginfo.com

Web site: http://www.dininginfo.com/