Testers
wanted.
We're shaping the next progressive dinner — and we'd like a small crew to walk through it before the doors open. You'll see the schedule first, break things on purpose, and tell us what worked.
Schedule drops here.
Test windows, walk-through dates, and the day-of dry run will all be announced on this page first. Bookmark it.
Real food, real bugs.
You'll get an early invite to a partial run-through. Order, rate, snap photos, and tell us where the seams show.
Your name in the credits.
Beta testers get an early-access pass for the public night, plus a thank-you in the post-event recap.
Round one ran
without a net.
It still went well.
Last progressive dinner shipped without a beta test — no test cohort, no walk-through, no dry run. Most of it worked. Some of it didn't. Below: the receipts, what we rebuilt because of them, and where the new crew comes in.
The app worked beautifully. Easy to navigate. Amazing.
What worked first time
The happy path held. The unsexy parts of the system did their jobs.
- The app worked beautifully — verbatim, repeated
- 14 of 36 surveys came back 5/5
- Server logs clean — no backend regressions
- Bayesian crown crowned the right dish
- 155 attendees moved through 5 stops in one night
What we shipped between events
Most complaints clustered on auth, install, and routing. We rewired all three.
- Per-user 6-char login codes — no more lost magic-links
- Pre-event Tuesday email so install happens before night-of
- Full PWA: installable, push, offline-aware
- In-app QR scanner — never bounce out to Safari
- Hard capacity caps + 30-min slot timer per restaurant
- Auto-handoff: scan next QR → previous stop checks you out
- Idempotent check-ins — double-scan is safe
- Real-time capacity board + /whats-next routing
Where you come in
Help us prove the rebuild before fifty people walk in.
- Pre-event email → paste login code → cookie sticks
- iOS Safari → install → home-screen → cold open
- Android Chrome install + push permission flow
- QR scanner: camera prompt, decode, auto-route
- Auto-handoff between two restaurants in sequence
- Push notifications: slot opened · 5-min warning
- Capacity cap blocks gracefully, suggests alternatives
- Session survives a 2-hour gap mid-event
- Walk-in fallback when not on the registration list
The $5 plate was the front door.
Not the bill.
The app captured 548 dish ratings totaling $3,050 in rated plates— but that's the floor, not the ceiling. People also ordered drinks, ordered seconds, and many couples shared one account. The math below uses $25–$35 per check-in — your number for an apps-and-a-drink stop in downtown.
- ✓Captured: check-ins per restaurant, dish ratings & prices.
- ✗Missed: drinks, second plates, side orders, walk-ins.
- ?Murky: couples sharing one account, attendees who skipped rating altogether.
$25–$35 per visit · drinks included
Numbers from eat_checkins, eat_ratings, and eat_menu_items.price as of 2026-04-29 event night. Per-visit spend ($25–$35) assumes food + one drink at downtown Saint Paul prices. Real receipts land inside the range — closer to high if drinks ran heavy, closer to low if check-ins ran ahead of orders.
If you've eaten with us before — or you're curious to — we want you in.
The progressive dinner runs on a quiet army of volunteers, hosts, chefs, and tech-curious neighbors. The beta crew is the first group to see how the night actually flows.
Fill out the dossier on the right. We'll email back with the testing schedule and what to expect — usually within a day or two.