Village Voice Media has released a new iPhone app, “Best Of…” which allows users to find and “check in” to local businesses, bars and food joints in their area:

With “Best Of ..,” VVM has taken its already existant “Happy Hours” and “City Guides” apps one step further, partnering up again with GoTime in order to create an recommendations app that utilizes the premium content produced for VVM’s yearly “Best Of” issue. Just open the GPS-enabled app in order to get editorially-curated local recommendations in the Food and Drink, Arts & Entertainment, Sports and Recreation, and Shopping/Services categories.

In addition to the thirteen cities in which VVM has publications, the app also lists businesses in cities such as Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

As VVM Director of New Media Bill Jensen recently explained to his former employee Alexia Tsotsis, “We’re taking our core products pushing them into the digital space and doing it correctly . . . ‘Best Of’ is the biggest issue of the year. People put the plaques up at their restaurants, so this was the natural thing to do.”

And there’s also a fun video!