“DO you have a favorite restaurant in New York?” Josh Beckerman asked Jason King. “Yes or no? Think of it in your head.”

The scene was Lure Fishbar, in SoHo, on a bustling Tuesday night this month. Mr. King was sitting in a booth with a couple of friends, gearing up for dinner. Mr. Beckerman, a 31-year-old product of Long Island who bills himself as “the foodie magician,” was standing at the edge of their table in a T-shirt that proclaimed his passion for bacon. He was staring into Mr. King’s eyes.

The two men had never met, and Mr. Beckerman appeared to have no clue that Mr. King was the 39-year-old chief executive of Studioality, a company that has designed Web sites for scores of restaurants, including the Red Cat, the Mermaid Inn, Schiller’s Liquor Bar and Pulino’s.

Mr. Beckerman asked Mr. King to jot down the name of his favorite place. Mr. King did so, discreetly, and tucked the piece of paper away. Then Mr. Beckerman asked, “When was the last time you were at this restaurant?”