Emergency room doc creates brand-new food app

Apparently, working as an emergency room doctor was not enough for 40-year-old La Grange native Ryan McKillip. 

As if the hectic, drama-filled, sometimes trauma-inducing work in an emergency room didn’t create enough excitement in his life, the eight-year veteran of the Christ Medical Center ER department in Oak Lawn stumbled on a new idea, which he has now turned into a full-time “side venture.”

And it all started with eggs benedict.

“That’s pretty much how it took off,” said McKillip, laughing. “One morning I was in the mood for an eggs benedict, and I started searching through Google and other devices and really didn’t find any strong, specific recommendations. Everything was kind of vague or slanted towards one particular place. I thought to myself, there has to be a better system.”

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So the ER doctor—used to fixing up wounds, applying bandages, and performing minor surgeries if needed—decided to do a little “off duty” operating.

He started a new food app called Caprarius, which people can use free of charge by simply typing in the specific food item they are looking for, and the app will present complete, detailed recommendations.

Note: Caprarius does not include the typical frills and add-ons other restaurant apps might have, such as rating a restaurant’s ambiance, its service, decor, menu selection, or price preferences.

Caprarius, instead, is all about the taste and the flavor. Its simple goal is to get you to where you can go to get the best-tasting item of the food you are craving.

Looking for the best-tasting cup of coffee? A really good French onion soup? The most delicious chopped salad? Which tacos taste best at a specific Mexican restaurant? Where do you go to get a good old-fashioned meatloaf and mashed potatoes in Chicago? Which ice cream has the best flavor? What pizza to order if you want a good thin crust with lots of toppings, or even where you can find the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich near where you are?

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These and many other food items you might be in the mood for are all available and right there for you, on the Caprarius app.

It no doubt is a unique concept built by McKillip, in what truly became for him a labor of love.

So where did the name Caprarius come from, and why? “It’s Latin for a goat herder,” explains McKillip, “but the real message is that goats will climb anything, no matter how high, to get what they want—and that is what we want our customers to do, with our food app helping.”

GOAT of course, in today’s lingo, also signals G.O.A.T. (the Greatest of All Time—i.e., Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky). But here, on this app? The G.O.A.T. symbolizes something a little different. It stands for the Greatest of All Tastes.

That is what Caprarius is trying to become. The ultimate goal to bring out the best in flavors and tastes as recommended by the people who know best—the Chicagoland restaurant-goers.

What methods did McKillip use to develop his unique rating system? First, as a prelude to that, McKillip found many of the current restaurant rating systems too vague, too skewed to a particular group of people, and in general… well—too general. Typical restaurant reviews were just not cutting it for the guy who does some “cutting” of his own for his regular job.

McKillip came up with a much more specific and much more accurate food rating/recommendation system that would then become the basis for his new app.

It is based on an aggregate of publicly available reviews, but even more detailed than that, as they rate the recency of the review, the quality of the review, the review writer’s expertise, and the source that the review came from. It is an in-depth formula designed to give you, the app user, the best tastes on any particular item you may be looking for.

It wasn’t easy, especially with the hectic schedule of an emergency room doctor.

“It took about a year to develop,” he says. “We started slowly, getting in my home town of La Grange first, and then gradually branched out into the city. Now we have over 5,000 Chicago restaurants in our rating system, and we are still growing.”

Any thoughts of maybe giving up the emergency room gig, and going full-time with Caprarius?

“Nope,” says the loyal doc. “Right now, it is just a lot of early mornings and a lot of late nights, but I’m dedicated to both ventures.”

Finally, the answer you have all been waiting for. So, where do you go to get the best-tasting eggs benedict in Chicago? According to current Caprarius ratings, the GOAT (Greatest of All Tastes) for eggs benedict would be at The Tweet restaurant in Uptown.See how easy that was?

For more information, go to the Caprarius website.