Would it not be great to have daily restaurant specials at your fingertips? Well, now you can get the daily specials from all the local restaurants instantly and the best part of it all is – it’s “On The House”. Yes, it’s absolutely free.
The On The House cellphone application created by a young couple from Stellenbosch allows users to view all the specials of their favourite restaurants in and around Stellenbosch in real time.
Emma Theart (23) and Abri Grobler (24) developed the app to make it easier for consumers to find the best specials in town.
Theart, originally from East London, is currently busy with her second year of studies towards a master’s degree in mathematics, aiming to pursue a career in academics. Grobler, who is a software developer from Windhoek in Namibia, is studying part-time towards a master’s degree in electronic engineering.
“We have both been living in Stellenbosch for six years, and it is striking how many amazing specials the town has to offer,” Theart pointed out. “As an MSc student, I am a huge fan of these specials. Every time we saw new specials at a restaurant that we didn’t know about, we would say things like, ‘Oh, we should come here on a Tuesday for the burger special’ or ‘I wish we were in time for the happy hour’. I think many people experience this.
“We searched for platforms that advertise all these specials, but we could not find anything complete or up-to-date enough. So, we decided to build such a platform.”
They decided to go the route of a cellphone app, so that it is accessible at all times and the information users want and need would literally be at your fingertips.
“We thought that Stellenbosch was sorely in need of something like this and we loved the idea of promoting our fantastic local restaurants,” Theart added. “Since then, we have been contacting restaurants – old favourites and restaurants we haven’t visited yet – and our list of go-to’s have definitely expanded in the process. We hope to keep adding more specials to the list.”
It took the couple six months to completely develop and launch the app, with Grobler heading up the software development and Theart taking care of the layout and design of the project.
“Abri works as a software developer; he actually studied engineering, but throughout his studies, he has always worked on small software-related projects, such as building websites for family members,” Theart related.
Grobler developed the app using React Native, which makes it easier to distribute on iOS and Android devices. The user-experience, layout and design was Theart’s responsibility.
“We make a great team. Between studies and work, we worked on the app in our free time. The research we conducted included speaking to locals and getting advice from restaurant managers and owners on the type of platform they would like to see their specials advertised on.”
Grobler said they aimed was to build a very simple, intuitive and user friendly platform.
“When you open the app, it immediately displays all the specials of that particular day. From there, you can easily select a different day and use the search bar to find anything you are looking for,” he explained. “For example, you can search for all the pizza specials on a Wednesday. When you tap on a special, you get further information about that offering and the restaurant. You can also easily call or navigate to the restaurant directly from the app. We also have a feature that allows you to report inaccurate specials. It is very important to us that information is up-to-date.”
The app is completely free to download and free for restaurants advertise on. “There is a Google ad on each page which, if we have enough users, will provide us with a bit of an income. Actually, these ads are not currently displayed as a sudden increase in app downloads (which we are very thankful for) caused the advertising network to mistakenly raise some flags.
