The gourmand’s gateway: Forkly is a must-have free mobile app for foodies

If you’re wondering how to capture the magic of a meal in a moment, look no further than your phone.

Yes, there should still be giggles and gobbles, bites and bits about your day, but come that monstrous mound of meat and the cavernous puff of chocolate, a moment can be taken to capture the experience – forever – with flashes and hashtags.

“Can you imagine? That steak must be two pounds, easy!”

“Oh my gosh. This is nuts. My soufflé is looking at me. I have to take a picture of this.”

You see, somewhere between the steak and the soufflé lies Forkly, the sometimes cousin of Instagram, twice removed from Twitter, and half-brother to Yelp. Its face may be new, but its concept is a deft merging of technologies we already know and love. It is the chance to create a photo journal of our gustatory lives.

Sure, we might be up to our necks in iPhone apps and tweeting/messaging accounts, but when one taps into our most primal love, it’s hard to turn a blind eye. Let’s face it: we love to talk about our food.

Which is why Forkly is so brilliant. It’s not quite Yelp – you’re not reviewing a restaurant experience and then posting it for all to see. And it’s not really Twitter, which bursts at the seams with 140-character aphorisms. It’s all that and not at all: an Instagram-esque capture of a dish with a quaint blurb about the moment, the bite, and the culinary experience. From there, friends chime in with salivating seconds: “I love it!;” “I want some!;” “Is that real blowfish?!”

So why write about a foodie phone app for Colorado’s Out Front mag? Well, two reasons. One, the gays love to eat – however much we deny it. There’s a reason bulging burgers are sold aplenty at Wrangler, wings are popped at Eden, and sweaty dogs are gorged in the recesses of Vinyl’s rooftop lounge. Second, Forkly is a proud native of Colorado. In fact, their offices are right on the edge of downtown on 11th and Speer.

Freshly-developed a few years ago (by trailblazing designers Martin May and Brady Becker of social-networking app Brightkite), Forkly is an example of the next generation of smartphone applications – a  smarter app for a new generation of users.

Say, for example, you’re wandering around LoDo and come across Squeaky Bean. On a whim, you and your BFF stop in for a cocktail and an early happy hour bite. What you discover is not only revelational, but orgasmic: a sea urchin emulsion like none other. So, you tell Forkly you dig it, and Forkly nods in agreement, taking note and assembling a list of similar tastes in the area. At the end of the day, what you get is a collection of recommendations based on your personal palate, and friendly reminders the next time you’re in the area that a certain sea urchin emulsion is calling your name.

For your foodie friends, the sampling and sifting is already done: your old college roommate Shar Shar loves that you love what she loves, so when you say you like Linquiça at Fogo de Chão – or the incomparable Squeaky Bean sea urchin – she’s more likely to drop by for a bite or three. See?

There’s no question – Forkly has undeniable benefits for the food-loving public as a whole. But, perhaps it has more specific import for the LGBT community on certain nights of the week and hours of the day – say, after a heavy night of drinking at the clubs, or on hangover mornings when a greasy fried chicken-and-waffle is just what the fabulous doctor ordered.

In case you need more convincing to give the app a spin, take note: The NY Times, TechCrunch, and the UK Guardian have all given it a nod. That doesn’t mean it will fit your needs perfectly, but it’s bound to be an appetizing temptation, no?

On the downside: Forkly is only available for the iPhone at the moment, but the developers promise to be working diligently on an Android version.

Find Forkly in the iPhone app store or visit Forkly.com.