The Snackpot Celebrates All Things Snacks

By Chuck Sudo in Food on May 9, 2012 8:20PM

The Snackpot, a website that a friend of ours called “Pitchfork for Cheetos” and other junk food, launched Monday and has quickly become a bookmark on our web browsers.

But to simplify The Snackpot by comparing it to Pitchfork isn’t entirely accurate, although their snack rankings do owe a slight debt to Pitchfork’s scaled system, according to founder Jacob Daneman. “We wanted to give our own spin to the reviews, which is why we rank snacks on the site for taste, texture and presentation, with an overall scale.” Daneman said.

A music publicist by day, Daneman was also drawn to create The Snackpot by a desire to connect his love of snack foods with pop culture. “I looked at sites like Grantland and The A.V. Club, which have heavy pop culture references, and wanted to create a site that celebrates snacks but also focuses on longform writing,” he said. He decided to move forward with the concept after he received favorable responses to the idea from friends and followers on twitter. So he pitched the idea to a friend, who was involved in website marketing and development, began rounding up writers with the help of his friend Keith Ecker, and the Snackpot was designed by Doejo, a local digital agency.

Aside from the snack reviews, The Snackpot also contains some interesting features by Ecker about growing up with body issues, an interview with Girl Talk by Daneman about his favorite snacks and snack mashups, and paeans to 7-Eleven nachos and Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos taco. All are written with considerable amounts of wit and affection for the subject of snacks.

Daneman even created a “Snackifesto” to focus on what defines a snack and keep the mission of The Snackpot focused on mass appeal. “What we want to review is something that can be purchased online or through a large retailer,” Daneman said. “If there's a glaring omission in the snackifesto that comes to mind, we can change it if we agree upon it with writers at a later date.”

Daneman, Ecker and the rest of The Snackpot staff will celebrate the launch of the site with a party at Schuba's tomorrow night starting at 7 p.m. Daneman and Ecker will be reading, along with Shannon Cason and others. Johnny Loftus, Ed Anderson and Pat Sisson will DJ. There will be free beer two complimentary drink tickets for the first 50 guests to arrive between from 7-9 p.m. and, of course, snacks from Popchips, Element bars and former Chilam Balam and Top Chef contestant Chuy Valencia, who will be making “low-minded, high-quality snacks” for the party.

There’s a suggested $10 donation, and guests who do donate will be eligible for door prizes.