Restaurant Gift Certificates

One of my favorite presents to give - and to receive - are meals at my favorite restaurants. This year, after my mother moved to Chicago, I really wanted to treat her to dinner at a nice restaurant there with a gift card. Unusually, the restaurant's website had a gift card function, but the form didn't work. Calls to the number listed for troubleshooting went unanswered. Short of flying out there, I wasn't sure what to do. I was delighted, then, to discover Treatful (www.treatful.com), a new site that issues gift cards to restaurants in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. And we're not talking Applebee's here, but neighborhood gems like Topolobampo and the Girl and the Goat in Chicago, Flour + Water in San Francisco, and Northern Spy Food Co and Buttermilk Channel in New York, to name but a few. I've got my gift all set for my mom, now, and I definitely know what's going on my Christmas list next year.