2009 Alt Foodie Trend No. 7: Twitter Ruled

Now till Dec. 31, SFoodie is counting down the city's top alternative food and restaurant trends of 2009 -- the ones you won't be reading about in the Chron.

See also: No. 8: Sportin' Wood; No. 9: Street-Food Busts; No. 10: Porn Star Chefs

​S.F. Alt Foodie Trend No. 8: Tweet, Tweet
It wasn't just friends who wanted you to know just how kickass the GNR track they were listening to was sounding. In 2009, all kinds of food professionals squeezed themselves into the 140-character space on Twitter. Without Twitter, of course, the street-food movement, well, wouldn't have been a movement. But chefs like Chris Cosentino (@offalchris) embraced the tweet, using it to advertise nightly specials, even send out twitpics of specials. In some cases, PR flacks were behind the tweets that appeared to come from restaurants (shame!). But there were other, more creative uses, too. Tweservation was one. And inspired by @cookbook and others, SFoodie's Tamara Palmer posted a series of Twitter-size recipes from local chefs.